Ruby Cohn

Waiting for Godot : a Casebook

Samuel Beckett

Ruby Cohn assumes realism to be the dominant mode in English theatre since 1956, the year of John Osbourne's Look Back in Anger. She argues, however, that the most provocative plays of the last few decades have departed from realism and she traces certain patterns of departure which are familiar in the long tradition of English drama. The patterns, which form the chapters of the book, include the theme of England as dramatic metaphor, modernisations or adaptations of Shakespeare, stage verse, theatre within theatre, explorations of madness, dreams, ghosts and the reviewing of history through a contemporary lens. Among the playwrights who avail themselves of these devices are John Arden, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton, Caryl Churchill, David Edgar, Pam Gems, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Peter Nichols, Tom Stoppard, David Storey, Heathcote Williams and Charles Wood.

Retreats from Realism in Recent English Drama

Four Contemporary French Plays

This is the first reprint of an important volume of Samuel Beckett's miscellaneous writings on art, literature and related matters. The unfinished play Human Wishes and a number of important and revealing letters are included as well as the famous Duthuit Dialogues. It is in these works, in particular, that we gain an insight into the mind of one of the most studied literary figures of the twentieth century - creator of Murphy, Watt, Molly and Waiting for Godot.

It was Ruby Cohn - author of many significant studies on modern drama - who persuaded Beckett to allow these writings to be published, six years before the author's death. They have now become classics in their own right.

Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment

Disjecta

An indispensable guide to the oeuvre of Samuel Beckett, spanning sixty years

A Beckett Canon

Currents in Contemporary Drama

Casebook on Waiting for Godot

Shakespeare's plays have never had a larger audience than they do in our time. This wide viewing is complemented by modern scholarship, which has verified and elucidated the plays' texts. Nevertheless, Shakespeare's plays continue to be revised. In order to find out how and why he has been rewritten, Ruby Cohn examines modern dramatic offshoots in English, French, and German. Surveying drama intended for the serious theater, the author discusses modern versions of Shakespeare's plays, especially Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest. Although the focus is always on drama, contrast is supplied by fiction stemming from Hamlet and essays inspired by King Lear. The book concludes with an assessment of the influence of Shakespeare on the creative work of Shaw, Brecht, and Beckett. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Ruby Cohn

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