Author Description

The landmark plays from the French theatre included in this edition embody the transition from the old to the modern in dramatic experimentation: precursors of surrealism, they are innovative, outrageous and highly enjoyable. Consisting of Maeterlinck's The Blind, Jarry's Ubu the King, and Apollinaire's The Mammaries of Tiresias, this edition provides new translations sensitive to crucial linguistic features such as rhyme and pun and contains the only editions of Maeterlinck and Apollinaire's plays in print. These three plays written between 1890 and 1917 surprised and shocked their first audiences and still continue to do so today.