Product Review

In this classic anthology of French drama, Stephen S. Stanton has assembled the nineteenth century's finest "well-made plays": The Glass of Water and A Peculiar Position by Eugene Scribe; Camille by Alexander Dumas fils; Olympe's Marriage by Emile Augier; A Scrap of Paper by Victorien Sardou. In an incisive introduction, Stanton fully diagrams these works and their seminal influence on modern theater. Whether Dumas's risqué study of courtesan love in Camille, or Augier's counterattack on the dangers of sentimentalizing such passions in Olympe's Marriage, these plays not only brilliantly evoke Second Empire and Third Republic French culture but also introduce domestic themes and theatrical devices that have influenced Western drama for the last one hundred and fifty years.