Excerpt from Chief Contemporary Dramatists, Second Series: Eighteen Plays From the Recent Drama of England, Ireland, America, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Scandinavia

This volume contains eighteen complete plays from the drama of England, Ireland, the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries. Together with the first volume of Chief Contemporary Dramatists, issued in 1915, there are now made available in convenient form thirty-eight plays of the first order of excellence from the theater of Europe and America. In the choice of plays the term contemporary has been interpreted strictly. Of the eighteen plays in this book, one third were produced in the decade between 1910 and 1920; all save three are prod ucts of the twentieth century. Of these works six have not before been published in English and are here made available for the first time in America.

Comparing the plays in this volume with those which constituted the first series Of Chief Contemporary Dramatists, some interesting tendencies in the theater Of the western world are disclosed. While the thesis or problem play, derived from France and enforced by Ibsen, was predominant in the eighteen-nineties and the earlier years Of the new cen tury, the form disappears as the century approaches its second decade. The present volume contains no single distinct exemplar of this type of play. The result of the freeing Of the play from the necessity Of being socially serviceable has been greatly to enrich the theater with new interests both in structure and content, and to call into the craft of play making men from arts outside the theater.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.