Woyzeck (NHB Classic Plays) - Softcover

Büchner, Georg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854591835 ISBN 13: 9781854591838

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 1996

Synopsis

Number nineteen in NHB's Drama Classics Series, providing the world's great drama at a great price.

Translated by Gregory Motton, with an introduction by Kenneth McLeish.

The introduction to this edition of Woyzeck includes a short biography of Georg Büchner and chronology of his work; a guide to what happens in the play; a short history of the play its source material, form and context; and a guide to the political background and naturalism and expressionism in theatre.

Based on a real-life murder trial that took place in Germany in the 1820s Woyzeck was written in 1837 but not staged until 1913. Since then it has become one of the most performed and influential plays in German theatre, Woyzeck is a modern classic that remains frighteningly relevant today.

Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial German town, is bullied by his superiors and starved by the regiment's doctor in the name of scientific experiment. His only pleasures in life are his lover Marie and their innocent young son. But when Woyzeck learns that Marie has been unfaithful with the regiment's handsome Drum Major, he murders his lover in a fit of rage and hopelessness.

About this title

Review:

Büchner's play is amazing, written in the 19th century but widely regarded as the first truly "modern" drama. It was based on the real-life case of a barber who stabbed his mistress in a fit of jealousy and was sentenced to death in 1821. A classic study, you might think, of violence prompted by sexual rage. But in Büchner's fragmented scenes it becomes something else altogether: a naturalistic tragedy, a damning social critique, a lower-class King Lear, a debate on free will and determinism. Hold it up to the light and it always takes on a different colour. --Guardian

About the Author:

Georg Büchner ( 1813 - 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany. It is widely believed that, but for his early death, he might have attained the significance of such central German literary figures as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1854591835
• ISBN 13: 9781854591838
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 78