LITMIR.BIZ

"An Enemy of the People" is Henrik Ibsen's classic drama of the animosity that can befall someone whose actions, while in the best interest of the public good, threaten the economic well being of a community. «An Enemy of the People» is the story of Dr. Stockmann who, when charged with inspecting the local public baths, discovers that the water is contaminated. When Dr. Stockmann suggests expensive repairs, the local town, which derives much of their economic prosperity from the baths, turns against him.

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"The School for Scandal" is Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy that pokes fun at London upper class society in the late 1700s. Often referred to as a «comedy of manners», «The School for Scandal» is one Sheridan's most performed plays and a classic of English comedic drama.

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Set in 1528, «Lady Inger of Ostrat» is Henrik Ibsen's historical drama based on Lady Inger of Austraat, who was the wealthiest Norwegian land-owner of her era. Swedish protesters of Danish rule of Norway, which since the Union of Kalmar in 1397 has largely become a province of Denmark, approach Lady Inger for her support in an insurrection against the Danes. As the fate of the nation of Norway lies in the balance, great political and personal intrigue abounds in this classic Ibsen drama.

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The story of ‘Plutus’ concerns Chremylus, a poor but just man, who accompanied by his body-servant Cario, consults the Delphic Oracle concerning his son, whether he ought not to be instructed in injustice and knavery and the other arts whereby worldly men acquire riches. By way of answer the god only tells him that he is to follow whomsoever he first meets upon leaving the temple, who proves to be a blind and ragged old man.

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The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. In this volume of Racine's plays we find «Bajazet», the seventh of twelve plays by the author. A five act tragedy, «Bajazet» draws its subject from contemporary history, taking care to choose a far off location, the Ottoman Empire. Set in 1635, the Sultan Amurat has executed his brothers and potential rivals Bajazet and Orcan. A rich example of Racine's dramatic talent, «Bajazet» is a complex tragedy rich with romantic subplots.

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The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Molière and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. Collected in this volume is a complete collection of Racine's dramatic works. Written between 1664 and 1691 Racine's plays draw their subject matter from historical events, mythology and the Bible. Presented in this volume are translations by Robert Bruce Boswell of the following works: «The Thebaid», «Alexander the Great», «Andromache», «The Litigants», «Britannicus», «Berenice», «Bajazet», «Mithridates», «Iphigenia», «Phaedra», «Esther», and «Athaliah».

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Born in Skien, Norway in 1828, Henrik Ibsen has often been referred to as the founder of modern drama and modernism in theatre. Ibsen was widely known as an atheist and political radical, and channeled some of those sentiments into his works. «Peer Gynt» captures humankind's unsure, imperfect and opportunistic nature in many memorable scenes: a portrait so intimate and accurate that the play has become a classic in Norwegian literature. This five act play was based on the Norwegian fairy tale, «Per Gynt», and broke down the structural barriers of Norwegian theatre, as Ibsen wrote the entire play in verse-form. «Peer Gynt» drifts between the conscious and unconscious, blending realism and folkloric fantasy. Ibsen used this play to satirize transcendentalist ideas, new and revolutionary at the time, that encouraged a return to nature and simplicity. A year after finishing this work, Ibsen suffered his first severe stroke, and never wrote again. This play was incredibly controversial at the time it was written, and holds true to its evocative nature today.

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William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1865, and was encouraged from a young age to pursue a life in the arts. He attended art school for a short while, but soon found that his talents and interest lay in poetry rather than painting. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Yeats produced a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry of Ireland's historical and legendary past. These writings helped secure for Yeats recognition as a leading proponent of Irish nationalism and Irish cultural independence. He received honorary degrees from Queen's University (Belfast), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. «The King's Threshold», first performed by the Irish National Theatre Society in 1903, referred to an Irish tradition that dates back to the 7th-8th centuries of commoners enforcing hunger strikes against people of higher status to whom they were indebted. It told the story of a bard who undergoes a hunger strike against the king.

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The 'Ecclesiazusae, or Women in Council,' was not produced till twenty years after the preceding play, the 'Thesmophoriazusae' (at the Great Dionysia of 392 B.C.), but is conveniently classed with it as being also largely levelled against the fair sex. "It is a broad, but very amusing, satire upon those ideal republics, founded upon communistic principles, of which Plato's well-known treatise [‘The Republic’] is the best example.—From the introduction to ‘The Ecclesiazusae’ by Aristophanes.

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"Ghosts" is the story of Helen Alving, a widow who is haunted by the many mistresses of her deceased husband and by her son who has inherited syphilis from his philandering father. «Ghosts» is a scathing indictment of Victorian society in which Ibsen refutes the notion that if one simply fulfills one's duty rather than following one's desires then a good and noble life will be achieved. Scandalous in its day for its frank discussion of venereal disease and marriage infidelity, «Ghosts» remains to this day an intense psychological drama and sharp social criticism.

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