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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 «The Thebaid», the first of twelve plays by the author. Racine draws upon Sophocles' «Antigone» and Euripides' «Phoenician Women» for this drama. The play concerns the struggle and death of the young son of Oedipus, as well as that of Antigone. The plot follows that of the other Theban plays in which we find Eteocles and Polynices, two warring brothers, Jocasta, their mother, Antigone, their sister, and Menoeceus and Haemon, their two cousins. All attempt unsuccessfully to quell the conflict between these two brothers in this tragic drama.

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Euripides's «Medea» is one of the great dramatic tragedies from classical antiquity. It is the story of its title character, Medea, the wife of Jason of the Argonauts, who seeks revenge upon her unfaithful husband when he abandons her for a new younger bride. «Medea» broke many of the dramatic conventions of the time when it debuted and it is for this reason that it stands as one of the greatest of all works from the classical age of drama.

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Originally published in George Bernard Shaw's 1901 collection «Three Plays for Puritans» and first performed in 1900, «Captain Brassbound's Conversion» is the drama of its title character, a sort of refined latter-day pirate who resides in Morocco. When two jaded English tourists, Sir Howard Hallam, a judge of the criminal bench, and Lady Cicely Waynflete, his sister-in-law, arrive at the Moroccan coast and endeavor to explore the interior, Captain Brassbound takes up the charge as their guide. However as they reach an ancient Moorish castle we discover that the confidence these two have placed in Captain Brassbound is misguided and a secret plot of revenge unfolds. While not Shaw's best known work, «Captain Brassbound's Conversion» is a fantastic work of comedic drama in which Shaw exhibits his skill at developing rich and interesting characters.

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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 «Esther», the penultimate of twelve plays by the author. «Esther» was written at the request of Madame de Maintenon, second wife of King Louis XIV of France, who wished Racine write some more liturgical works to be performed by the pupils of the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, a famous academy for girls. Racine's drama concerns the Biblical character of Esther, Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus, who is commonly thought to be Xerxes I.

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Thomas Middleton (1580-1627), a bricklayer's son, rose to become one of the most eminent playwrights of the Jacobean period. Along with Ben Johnson he helped shape the dynamic course of drama in Renaissance England. His range is broad, as his work successfully covers comedy, tragedy, and history. Praised during his life as well as today, Middleton remains relevant and influential. In «A Chaste Maid in Cheapside» (1630), we see Middleton at the heights of his comedic powers. A satire set in the city, this play examines the power of money and sex in rapidly growing London. The titular maid, Moll Yellowhammer, is courted by several men, all eager to gain access to her father's fortunes. This romantic comedy rolls with a bawdiness and frivolity that is the source of its hilarity. Driven by a fundamental cynicism, the play is lightened by its unrelenting wit. Considered Middleton's best comedy, «A Chaste Maid in Cheapside» resonates today as it did upon its release.

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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. First performed in 1892, «Widower's Houses» was the first of Shaw's plays to see the stage. This play was included in a collection of plays called «Plays Unpleasant», named so because Shaw's intention in writing them was not to entertain, but to raise awareness in certain areas of social concern. The source of social concern here in this play is the income derived from slum housing and the play focuses on the rift it forms between the two main characters, Henry Trench who has a moral problem with the way the father of his wife earns his money and his wife, Blanch who has no problem taking money from her father.

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Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Moliere, stands without a rival at the head of French comedy. Born at Paris in January, 1622, where his father held a position in the royal household, he was educated at the Jesuit College de Clermont, and for some time studied law, which he soon abandoned for the stage. His life was spent in Paris and in the provinces, acting, directing performances, managing theaters, and writing plays. He had his share of applause from the king and from the public; but the satire in his comedies made him many enemies, and he was the object of the most venomous attacks and the most impossible slanders. Nor did he find much solace at home; for he married unfortunately, and the unhappiness that followed increased the bitterness that public hostility had brought into his life. «The Misanthrope,» considered to be one of Moliere's greatest works, is a truly original and sophisticated dramatic comedy.

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Written by Cyril Tourneur and first published in 1611, «The Atheist's Tragedy, or the Honest Man's Revenge» is a classic Jacobean era revenge play. In this drama we find the story of D'Amville, a wealthy French nobleman and our titular atheist. D'Amville is a cynical, ruthless, and Machiavellian character who conspires to have his brother, the Baron Montferrers, killed and ruin his nephew, Charlemont, in order to gain the son's inheritance. With a complex three-level plot structure «The Atheist's Tragedy» would incite much critical analysis since its publication, specifically with regard to the plays place in the evolution of Jacobean tragedy and the revenge play. One can compare Tourneur's work here to «The Revenger's Tragedy,» which some believe to actually be authored by Tourneur and not Thomas Middleton, as well as other revenge tragedies including Thomas Kyd's «The Spanish Tragedy,» and George Chapman's «The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois;» all instrumental works in the development of this form of drama.

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First performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 21, 1879, “A Doll’s House” is one of Henrik Ibsen’s most famous plays. It is the story of Nora Helmer who has secretly borrowed a large sum of money to help her husband recover from a serious illness, sometime prior to the beginning of the play. Nora who has borrowed this money by forging her father’s signature soon fears that her secret will be discovered when her husband, Torvald, becomes director of the bank and fires an associate, Nils Krogstad, who knows of Nora’s transgression. When Krogstad threatens to reveal Nora’s secret, she begs her husband not to reinstate him, however, he refuses. The tension that arises in Nora and Torvald’s marriage ultimately comes to a head when Torvald finally learns of the forgery. A gripping drama about a failing, loveless marriage, “A Doll’s House” was very controversial when it debuted, because of its critical attitude toward 19th-century marriage norms. Ibsen himself believed that the male dominated society of the 19th-century society failed to allow women to truly be themselves, and thus advocated, through his work, for an advancement of women’s rights. This edition includes an introduction by William Archer.

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First performed in 1913, “Pygmalion” is George Bernard’s Shaw’s play regarding two scholars of phonetics, Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, trying to test their theories on an unsuspecting flower girl. When Higgins boasts he could pass anyone off as a lord or lady simply by teaching them to speak right, Pickering wagers that he can’t and offers to pay for the speech lessons of Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl. Eliza accepts the offer for speech lessons because she wants to lose her Cockney accent so she can get a job in a flower shop. A satire of the superficiality of distinctions between social classes, “Pygmalion” is one of Shaw’s most famous comedies, the subject of numerous stage productions. Forever immortalized by the multiple Academy award-winning motion picture “My Fair Lady”, this play is sure to endure as a dramatic classic for years to come. This edition includes the illustrations by May Wilson Preston which appeared in the first serialized American edition.

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