LITMIR.BIZ

"A Woman of No Importance" is Oscar Wilde's classic comedic play. The woman of no importance is Mrs. Arbuthnot, a woman who has been scorned by society for having an illicit affair and conceiving a child out of wedlock. «A Woman of No Importance» is both a criticism of the shameful double standard applied to men and women in such matters and a biting satire of the hypocrisy of the upper classes in Victorian Society.

Подробнее

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 «Mithridates», the eighth of twelve plays by the author. In this drama Racine draws upon the historical figure of Mithridates who is remembered as one of the Roman Republic's most formidable and successful enemies. Having reigned over the kingdom of Pontus, around the Black Sea, Mithridates was famous for having gradually immunized himself to poisons. Popular in its day being a favorite of King Louis XIV, the play has become increasingly rare on stage over the past centuries.

Подробнее

The Faustian legend has captured the imagination of readers and writers for centuries and in Goethe's «Faust» we find one of the greatest tellings of this old German tale. It is the story of man who makes a deal with the devil and pays with his soul. The influence of this theme on literature cannot be understated. In Goethe's «Faust» we find what is probably the most famous version of the story and one of the greatest works of literature ever written.

Подробнее

This edition of comedies by Molière includes: «The School for Wives,» a comedy of infidelity and his first great success, «The Critique of the School for Wives,» «Don Juan,» «The Miser,» and «The Imaginary Invalid,» the play that Molière appeared in only hours before his death. Renowned for his comedic genius and ability to portray a true sense of humanity in his characters, Molière has been delighting and intriguing audiences since the seventeenth century, at which time they pleased King Louis XIV and changed the face of French comic drama. «The Miser,» a representative product of Molière's many-sided genius, is a comedy of manners loosely based on «The Pot of Gold,» by the Roman playwright Plautus. In each of these plays, Molière weaves a dark thread of tragedy into his comic visions of love, society, and the comfortable bourgeois home.

Подробнее

This collection of plays by Swedish playwright and writer, August Strindberg, are a testimony to his title as «the father of modern literature» in Sweden, as well as to his distinction as one of the most important playwrights of the 20th century. Beginning with two of his popular, early plays, «The Father» and «Miss Julie,» this edition explores Strindberg's crucial transition from Naturalism to Modernism, concluding with «The Dance of Death,» «A Dream Play,» and «The Ghost Sonata.» As an author unafraid of exploring new possibilities in dramatic fiction, Strindberg is noted for his psychological realism, blatant misogyny, symbolism, and his utterly fluid and subjective sequences of events. His works bore intense scrutiny in their time, but have since been recognized for the prodigious influence they exhibited not only in the Naturalist and Expressionist genres, but on modern theatre as a whole.

Подробнее

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. His father's love of reading aloud exposed him early on to William Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and the pre-Raphaelites, and developed an interest in Irish myths and folklore. Yeats was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and scorn for modern science. He was intrigued by the idea of mysticism, yet had little regard for Christianity. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923, and received honorary degrees from Queen's University (Belfast), Trinity College (Dublin), and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. His Morality play, «The Hour Glass», appeared on stage as early as 1902, and underwent many revisions by its final version in 1922. The story presents a Fool, a Wise Man and an Angel who sort through questions of faith, doubt and the Wise Man's unrelenting rationalism. In this edition we have Yeats' verse version of the play.

Подробнее

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injustices, seeing poverty and general unfairness afoot, and would go on to address this in many of his works. In 1876, Shaw joined his mother in London where he would finally attain literary success. He used the stage to deliver messages to his audiences in the hope of bettering society. Shaw's vision was not just to reconcile issues within his society, but to encourage mankind to strive for a sort of perfection close to divinity. In this edition we have three of Shaw's shorter plays. «How He Lied to Her Husband» is the story of Henry Apjohn how is having an affair with Aurora Bompas, the wife of Teddy. «The Fascinating Foundling» is the story of how a lawyer and his aide unwittingly help two very picky people, when it comes to dating, find each other. Also contained in this volume is «The Glimpse of Reality».

Подробнее

Widely known as the play that gave the American dramatist Eugene O'Neill international acclaim, «The Emperor Jones» is a one-act play that follows the complete disintegration of Brutus Jones. This protagonist, formerly a Pullman porter in the United States, has escaped his criminal activity there by establishing himself as a ruler in the West Indies. O'Neill, in an experiment with Expressionism, then leads Jones through a series of hallucinations in a forest when he attempts to escape his rebellious subjects. This highly symbolic nocturnal expedition leads Jones to confront his racially black past, as well as his own personal destruction from a man of self-confidence to a cowering shadow of his previous being. O'Neill's originality was as readily apparent in 1920 as it is today, for he insisted on the first racially integrated Broadway cast, particularly with an African American actor in the lead role, in the United States; O'Neill's amazing depiction of change and transformation in «The Emperor Jones» still endures.

Подробнее

"Pillars of Society" is the story of Karsten Bernick, a prominent businessman in a small Norwegian coastal town. Karsten comes from a wealthy shipping and shipbuilding family yet he has aspirations for an even greater enterprise. When he begins secretly buying up land in the valley between the town and the main rail line, which he is backing a new rail connection to, his scandalous past suddenly comes back to him in the form of Johan Tonnesen, his wife's younger brother, who has just returned from America. Written in 1877, Ibsen's «Pillars of Society» predates a string of masterpieces by the dramatist that would ultimately secure his place in literary history. While criticized for its ending, the play accurately portrays the power of the rich to often rise above the power of the law.

Подробнее

George Chapman's «The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois» is a sequel to his earlier work, «Bussy D'Ambois,» and was first published in 1613. The play is one of Chapman's dramas based on recent political and historical events in France. Specifically the play draws upon Edward Grimeston's «A General Inventory of the History of France» as a primary source and revolves around historical events that occurred in 1588, during the reign of Henri III. The drama concerns the story of Clermont D'Ambois whose brother Bussy has been gunned down in an ambush. Clermont becomes involved in a relationship with Tamyra, Bussy's former lover, who urges Clermont to take vengeance on her husband Montsurry, who is responsible for Bussy's murder. Since the events of the play of are more reported rather than enacted «The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois» has not earned itself a significant stage history. Despite this fact the work stands as an important example of the Jacobean revenge tragedy.

Подробнее