Contexts Of The Drama by Richard Goldstone (Vintage 1968, Paperback).

This book is in good condition, there is some damage to the front cover as well as the first few pages. This can be seen in the photos, the photos are the actual book you will receive. Thank you!

PREFACE

All of the plays that constitute this anthology are notable works, admirably representing their respective authors. Such plays are their own excuse for being; in choosing them, however, I was guided by considerations beyond their inherent excellence. Every play has proved itself in

the college classroom. All twelve, moreover, form a viable teaching whole, each bearing a relationship one to the other.

Those who approach the study of literature historically, and therefore chronologically, will find that the plays in this volume fall into five periods: classical Greece is represented by two tragedies; the seventeeth century by Shakespeare and Molière; the late nineteenth and

turn-of-the-century by Ibsen, Shaw, and Chekhov; the decade beginning with World War II by three American plays; and the past decade by two representations of the new drama. I regret that space limitations prevented the inclusion of other plays of other periods, most particu-larly, examples of Restoration and eighteenth-century English comedy.

Another approach that this selection accommodates is the generic study of drama. The major genres are included: classic and Shakespearean tragedy; classic farce; modern tragedy; realistic drama; the Shavian comedy of ideas; historical drama; theater of the absurd.

For those who prefer to focus their study of plays on major themes, each play in this text has either a thematic counterpart or antithesis in another play in this volume.

1. The conflict between personal commitment and social responsibility underlies both Antigone and Becket.

2. The power of love and the use of power are antitheses reflected in the two plays by Shakespeare and Shaw.

3. Two farces about love and money reveal the differences between the France of Louis XIV and the America of Chester A. Arthur.

4. The frustration of a woman when engaged in a mortal struggle against social custom is portrayed in both Phaedra and Hedda Gabler.

5. Romantic dreams and the nightmare of reality are the concerns of both Chekhov and Williams.

6. Two studies in loneliness and alienation are provided by O'Neill and Albee.

Other thematic relationships will undoubtedly suggest themselves.

No fewer than half the plays offered here were written by playwrights whose love of the English language is reflected in the stylistic excellence of the work which represents them. Even Eugene O'Neill, whose ear betrayed him in many of his earlier plays, became at one

with the American language in his maturity. The six plays in translation are not mere renderings into English from another language. They combine fidelity to their origins with literary distinction. Be cause all are recent translations, the dialogue is fresh and alive with. out being anachronistic.

I should like to express my appreciation to Professors Beekman Cot. trell, John Henry Raleigh, Philip Roddman, Sherwood Weber, and Mr. Bruce Moody for the afterwords they wrote for this volume. Also I am obligated to Messrs. Edward Albee and Thornton Wilder and to Professors Frank Jones and Maynard Mack for their permission to use articles they had prepared for other publications but which fit harmoniously into the context of this book.

I am further indebted to Professor Roddman for his reading much of the introductory material and making a number of excellent recommendations. Kenneth Fay, of Long Island University, has improved the text with his shrewd editorial suggestions. A number of my colleagues have provided me with good counsel; to each of them I offer thanks and the hope that this book fulfills their expectations. A special debt is due

Rosalie Seidler, who made the drawings of the twelve playwrights in this volume.