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Cover

Three Plays

Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV, The Mountain Giants

Luigi Pirandello
Anthony Mortimer

April 2014

ISBN: 9780199641192

240 pages
Paperback
196x129mm

In Stock

Oxford World's Classics

Price: £8.99

Pirandello is a seminal figure in modern drama. This is the only one-volume edition of his two most famous plays, Six Characters in Search of an Author and Henry IV, and his last unfinished masterpiece The Mountain Giants, in lively and performable new translations that remain faithful to the letter and spirit of the originals.

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Description

Pirandello is a seminal figure in modern drama. This is the only one-volume edition of his two most famous plays, Six Characters in Search of an Author and Henry IV, and his last unfinished masterpiece The Mountain Giants, in lively and performable new translations that remain faithful to the letter and spirit of the originals.

  • A new translation and unique selection of three plays by this major modern European playwright.
  • Includes the two plays that established Pirandello's reputation as an innovative dramatist - Six Characters in Search of an Author and Henry IV - together with his last unfinished drama, The Mountain Giants, marking his move towards the mythical.
  • Anthony Mortimer's translation combines accuracy, maintaining the original flavour and context, with fluency.
  • The Mountain Giants has a special interest as a reflection of its author's relations with the fascist regime.
  • Includes Pirandello's preface to Six Characters in Search of an Author, an essential critical document for the understanding of his revolutionary play.
  • Substantial introduction places a fresh emphasis on the specifically Sicilian and Italian context of Pirandello's work and the relation between his prose fiction and his achievement as a dramatist.

About the Author(s)

Luigi Pirandello

Anthony Mortimer, Emeritus Professor, University of Fribourg

Luigi Pirandello (1869-1936) broke decisively with the conventions of realist theatre with his two major plays, Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) and Henry IV (1922). His relationship with Mussolini has been the subject of much debate, and his last play, The Mountain Giants (1937), reflects Pirandello's growing anxiety about artistic integrity under a fascist regime. The quintessential modernist playwright, his plays foreshadow the Theatre of the Absurd and anticipate the work of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Eugene Ionesco. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934.

Anthony Mortimer is best known for his translations of Italian poetry, including Dante, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Michelangelo, and, forthcoming, François Villon (Oneworld, 2013).

Table of Contents

    Introduction
    Note on the Text
    Select Bibliography
    Chronology
    SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
    HENRY IV
    THE MOUNTAIN GIANTS
    Appendix: Preface to Six Characters in Search of an Author
    Explanatory Notes

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