In brand new translations by Ryan Bloom, four theatrical masterpieces from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Outsider and The Plague are brought together for the first time in English, alongside deleted scenes and alternate lines of dialogue Caligula/The Misunderstanding /State of Emergency/The Just Although renowned for his novels, Albert Camus described the theatre as 'one of the only places in the world I'm happy', and staged the four plays gathered in this collection in Paris between 1944-49. Caligula, his first full-length dramatic work, portrays the monstrous emperor who destroys men, gods and ultimately himself. Here too are The Misunderstanding, a murderous tangle of longing; State of Emergency, where 'The Plague' appears as a central character; and The Just, which explores the limits of political conviction. This new translation brings together Camus's final versions of the plays, along with deleted scenes and alternate lines of dialogue.

Also includes The Misunderstanding, State of Siege, and The Just Assassins. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.

The respectful prostitute. Four plays written by the French existentialist philosopher and writer addressing such topics as hell, racism, and conduct of life.

Living in Rome under Caligula and later a tutor to Nero, Seneca witnessed the extremes of human behaviour. His shocking and bloodthirsty plays not only reflect a brutal period of history but also show how guilt, sorrow, anger and desire lead individuals to violence. The hero of Hercules Insane saves his own family from slaughter, only to commit further atrocities when he goes mad. The horrifying death of Astyanax is recounted in Trojan Women, and Phaedra deals with forbidden love. In Oedipus a nervous man discovers himself, while Thyestes recounts the bitter family struggle for a crown. Of uncertain authorship, Octavia dramatizes Nero's divorce from his wife and her deportation. The only Latin tragedies to have survived complete, these plays are masterpieces of vibrant, muscular language and psychological insight.

“Nearly everything about David Adjmi’s Stunning has an original ring to it, from the setting . . . to the brassy bleat of the dialogue." –Time Out New York This volume of distinctive work includes Stunning, set in an insular Syrian Jewish community, where a teenage bride’s world is disrupted by her intellectual African American housekeeper; Evildoers, about the collapse of two privileged couples; and Elective Affinities, a post-9/11 monologue. David Adjmi’s work has been produced at Lincoln Center Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and the Royal Court in London. He has received numerous commissions and is the recipient of a 2009 Kesselring Fellowship and a Bush Artist Fellowship.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • Four seminal plays by one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. An existential portrayal of Hell in Sartre's best-known play, as well as three other brilliant, thought-provoking works: the reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, the conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and conflict, and an arresting attack on American racism.