The Birth of Theatre: 1 - Rilegato

Freund, Philip

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0720611679 ISBN 13: 9780720611670

Casa editrice: Peter Owen Ltd, 2003

Riassunto

The first volume in the Stage by Stage series, covering the classical theater of Greece and Rome.

Philip Freund has spent more than 30 years writing a monumental history of the theater. The Stage by Stage series is a chronicle of world theater, from primitive rites and enactments of myths to contemporary drama, to be published in a series of volumes. This first one traces the evolution of classical drama from its beginnings in Egyptian and Middle Eastern religious ritual, and particularly the Greek mystical cult of Dionysus, through the golden age of the Periclean period in Athens and ending with the major Roman playwrights of the late Republican and early Imperial age. The book includes detailed discussions of the extant plays—tragedies and comedies—of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. This is followed by accounts of notable productions and revivals, especially in the U.S. and Britain over the past half-century as well as earlier where descriptions or assessments are available. The book ends with a discussion of the development of Middle and New Comedy in Greece and the works of Plautus, Terence, and Horace.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

I congratulate Yuri Druzhnikov on an excellent and very important book. This is the way, gradually, that at least most Soviet lies will be revealed, if not all of them --Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Combines the scope of Solzhenitsyn with the mordant humour of Bulgakov --Observer

This stunning work of genius . . . as scathingly funny as it is unrelentingly deadly --Review of Contemporary Fiction

Originally published in Russia in 1979, this novel is set in late 1960's Moscow, at the time when Kruschev-era reforms were being turned back by the nascent Brezhnev-era repressions. The setting for this novel, which was written between 1969 and 1979, is a fictitious Soviet national newspaper, 'Trudovaya Pravda', the organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The employees of this paper, their lives, concerns, the machinations represent a microcosm of the Brezhnev-era period of stagnation, where inaction and self-preservation were the rules by which everyone lived. The novel opens with Igor Makartsev, the Executive Editor of 'Trudovaya Pravda', suffering a severe heart attack. It is slowly revealed that this heart attack was brought on by the appearance first of a mysterious, highly subversive, and illegal manuscript 'Russia in 1939', marked as samizdat, and second by the author himself, the Marquis Astolphe de Custine. In a scene reminiscent of Bulgakov, to whom Druzhnikov has been previously compared, the Marquis engages Makartsez, as the latter reads the manuscript, in a philosophical debate as to whether Russia's rulers treat their own people with the dignity and respect that should be accorded any human being. The issues discussed within the manuscript, although written about 1839 Russia, reflect issues of concern in the Soviet Union of the 1960's... ... While the actual time period presented in the novel is quite outdated, the themes are not. Just as the descriptions of nineteenth-century Russia are seen as true in the Soviet Union of the 1960's, so do the themes carry over to present-day Russia: petty bureaucrats climbing over each other to reach the top; a government that wishes only to speak with only one voice, drives away any remnants of an opposition press, and imposes censorship at every level; and a possible return to a cult of personality. In this way, Druzhnikov's novel is timeless. --The Samaritan Review

This stunning work of genius . . . as scathingly funny as it is unrelentingly deadly --Review of Contemporary Fiction

L'autore:

Philip Freund is a novelist, poet, documentary film writer, and playwright as well as essayist, literary critic, and anthropologist. He is a professor emeritus at Fordham University, New York, and he has taught and lectured on drama and related subjects at other universities.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Peter Owen Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0720611679
• ISBN 13: 9780720611670
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 811