The Silver King, The Case of Rebellious Susan, and The Liars, with a full introduction.

With special emphasis on literary merit, this book chronicles the literature of the great nations of Britain and America from their earliest origins to the twenty-first century.

From 1880 to 1956, when John Osborne transformed the British theater world with Look Back in Anger, British playwrights made numerous lasting contributions and provided a foundation for the innovations of dramatists during the latter half of the 20th century. This reference profiles the life and work of some 40 British playwrights active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of whom are also known for their work as novelists and poets. Included are figures such as W. H. Auden, Max Beerbohm, Noel Coward, T. S. Eliot, John Galsworthy, Graham Greene, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw, and Oscar Wilde. Each entry provides a biographical overview; a list of major plays and summaries of their critical reception; a list of minor plays, adaptations, and productions; an assessment of the playwright's career; and archival and bibliographical information. Included in this reference book are alphabetically arranged entries for some 40 British playwrights active from 1880 through 1956. Entries are written by expert contributors, with each entry providing a biographical overview; a list of major plays, premieres, and significant revivals, along with a summary of the critical reception of these works; a listing of additional plays, adaptations, and productions; an assessment of the playwright's career and contributions, with reference to published evaluations in magazines, journals, dissertations, and books; a listing of locations housing unpublished archival material, if available; a selected bibliography of the dramatist's published plays and of essays and articles by the playwright on aspects of the theater; a selected bibliography of secondary sources; and, when available, a listing of previously published bibliographies on the playwright.

Evolutionary theory made its stage debut as early as the 1840s, reflecting a scientific advancement that was fast changing the world. Tracing this development in dozens of mainstream European and American plays, as well as in circus, vaudeville, pantomime, and "missing link" performances, Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett reveals the deep, transformative entanglement among science, art, and culture in modern times. The stage proved to be no mere handmaiden to evolutionary science, though, often resisting and altering the ideas at its core. Many dramatists cast suspicion on the arguments of evolutionary theory and rejected its claims, even as they entertained its thrilling possibilities. Engaging directly with the relation of science and culture, this book considers the influence of not only Darwin but also Lamarck, Chambers, Spencer, Wallace, Haeckel, de Vries, and other evolutionists on 150 years of theater. It shares significant new insights into the work of Ibsen, Shaw, Wilder, and Beckett, and writes female playwrights, such as Susan Glaspell and Elizabeth Baker, into the theatrical record, unpacking their dramatic explorations of biological determinism, gender essentialism, the maternal instinct, and the "cult of motherhood." It is likely that more people encountered evolution at the theater than through any other art form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Considering the liveliness and immediacy of the theater and its reliance on a diverse community of spectators and the power that entails, this book is a key text for grasping the extent of the public's adaptation to the new theory and the legacy of its representation on the perceived legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of scientific work.

This book is a complete and comprehensive projection of John Whiting as an absurdist playwright. It is a round and unvarnished story of a prodigious playwright who within a short span of his life, did much to outshine his contemporaries. His journey was not limited to stage and theatre. He also wrote for the films, television and even radio. The journey began with The Conditions of Agreement in 1946 and ended with The Devils in 1961. In between he wrote many landmark plays through which one can trace the evolutionary trajectory of a legend in the making who was a confluence of mind and mystery, love and revenge, sentimentality and blood lust. His plays are replete with sin and sleaze, callousness and collusion. This was because in Whiting, one also comes across the diminution of norms owning to ethical elasticity and dispensability of principles. In his plays the pathology of power is matched by the ethos of human failings as is exemplified by the rise and fall of Grandier in The Devils. Here the banality of power fails to keep distance between pretense and principles. Bereft of the romance of renewal and predictability, many of his plays end up on disjointed note in the best tradition of the theatre of the absurd. The playwright's obsession with pre-mediated violence creates a disconnect between storyline and characterization. In practically every plays of Whiting creates a heady cocktail of fear, violence, loathing and paranoia and yet they make for a compelling reading. This book is a summary of my findings regarding John Whiting with terse comments on his qualities as an absurdist playwright. It has been my endeavor to assess him both as a literary figure and a playwright, wedded to the absurdist tradition.