Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature n 1969; his literary output of plays, novels, stories and poetry has earned him an uncontested place as one of the greatest writers of our time. "Endgame, " originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, is considered by many critics to be his greatest single ...
The Greek Tragedy in New Translations series is based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves, or who work in collaboration with poets, can properly re-create the celebrated and timeless tragedies of the great Greek writers. These new translations are more than faithful to the original text, going beyond the literal ...
Love and loyalty, hatred and revenge, fear, deprivation, and political ambition: these are the motives which thrust the characters portrayed in these three Sophoclean masterpieces on to their collision course with catastrophe. Recognized in his own day as perhaps the greatest of the Greek tragedians, Sophocles' reputation has remained undimmed for ...
Goethe's masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, "Faust" has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with the devil, Mephistopheles, that no magic, sensuality, experience or knowledge can lead him to a moment he ...
The world's greatest physicist, Johann Wilhelm Mobius, is in a madhouse, haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon. He is kept company by two other equally deluded scientists: one who thinks he is Einstein, another who believes he is Newton. It soon becomes evident, however, that these three are not as harmlessly lunatic as they appear. Are ...
Richard Wilbur's verse translation of Tartuffe has been acclaimed as a masterpiece in its own right. Set in rhymed couplets, it captures not only the tone of the original but the dramatic energy as well. Not surprisingly, the play in this translation has been performed regularly over the years. One of Moliere's most popular plays, Tartuffe, ...
Among the greatest and best known of Ibsen's works, these four plays--A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder--brilliantly embody his landmark contributions to the theater. Rich in symbolism and often autobiographical, each work deals convincingly with the human emotions of greed, fear, and sexual hostility, and confronts ...
'One word to tell the reader what he will not find in this book. Although I have the most passionate attachment for the theater, I have the misfortune of liking only one kind of play, whether comic or tragic.
Considered by many to be one of Brecht's masterpieces, Galileo explores the question of a scientist's social and ethical responsibility, as the brilliant Galileo must choose between his life and his life's work when confronted with the demands of the Inquisition. Through the dramatic characterization of the famous physicist, Brecht examines the ...
Durrenmatt once wrote of himself: "I can best be understood if one grasps grotesqueness," and The Visit is a consummate, alarming Durrenmatt blend of hilarity, horror, and vertigo. The play takes place "somewhere in Central Europe" and tells of an elderly millionairess who, merely on the promise of her millions, swiftly turns a depressed area into ...
In this fin de siecle parable of class tension and gender war, a wealthy woman engages a man on her staff in a summer's night of passion, including fights, sex, dreams for a shared future in which their social differences won't matter, and disillusionment when they realize how stuck in their lives they really are. This play was written in 1888.
A troupe of black actors perform their own "Tempest." Cesaire's rich and insightful adaptation draws on contemporary Caribbean society, the African-American experience and African mythology to raise questions about colonialism, racism and their lasting effects. Aime Cesaire, who was born in Martinique in 1913, is one of this century's major ...
R.U.R.-written in 1920, premiered in Prague in 1921, and first performed in New York in 1922-garnered worldwide acclaim for its author and popularized the word "robot." Mass-produced as efficient laborers to serve man, A Capekas Robots are an android product-they remember everything but think of nothing new. But the Utopian life they provide ...
A philosophical French drama. Marc cannot believe that his friend Serge has bought an expensive modern painting, and they quarrel, while the play's third character, a friend of them both, tries to calm them.
Spring's Awakening is a tragi-comedy of teenage sex. Its fourteen-year-old heroine, Wendla, is killed by abortion pills. The young Moritz, terrorized by the world around him, and especially by his teachers, shoots himself. The ending seems likely to be the suicide of Moritz's friend, Melchior, but in a confrontation with a mysterious stranger (the ...
In these three plays, Garcia Lorca's acknowledged masterpieces, he searched for a contemporary mode of tragedy and reminded his audience that dramatic poetry-or poetic drama-depends less on formal convention that on an elemental, radical outlook on human life. His images are beautiful and exact, but until now no translator had ever been able to ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
