Chapter 9

"The story of Pandora is so set down as to bring out its stage possibilities. Told by Mrs. Rogers in exquisite language."

Salt Lake Tribune:

"The tale is charmingly wrought and has possibilities as a simple dramatic production, as well as being a delightful morsel of light reading."

Cincinnati Enquirer:

"The love story is delightfully told and the dramatic action of the play is swift and strong."

Buffalo Express:

"It is a delightful bit of fancy with a dramatic and poetic setting."

Boston Woman's Journal:

"Epimetheus and Pandora and her box are charmingly presented."

Worcester Gazette:

"It is absolutely refreshing to find a writer willing to risk a venture harking back to the times of the Muses and the other worthies of mythological fame. * * * The story of Pandora's box told in verse by a woman. It may be said it could not have been better written had a representative of the one who only assisted at the opening been responsible for the play."

Handsomely bound silk cloth Net, $1.00

Comedies of Words and Other Plays

BY ARTHUR SCHNITZLER

TRANSLATED BY PIERRE LOVING

{"The Hour of Recognition"{"Great Scenes"The contents are {"The Festival of Bacchus"{"His Helpmate"{"Literature."

In his "Comedies of Words," Arthur Schnitzler, the great Austrian Dramatist, has penetrated to newer and profounder regions of human psychology. According to Schnitzler, the keenly compelling problems of earth are: the adjustment of a man to one woman, a woman to one man, the children to their parents, the artist to life, the individual to his most cherished beliefs, and how can we accomplish this adjustment when, try as we please, there is a destiny which sweeps our little plans away like helpless chessmen from the board? Since the creation of Anatol, that delightful toy philosopher, so popular in almost every theater of the world, the great Physician-Dramatist has pushed on both as World-Dramatist and reconnoiterer beyond the misty frontiers of man's conscious existence. He has attempted in an artistic way to get beneath what Freud calls the "Psychic Censor" which edits all our suppressed desires. Reading Schnitzler is like going to school to Life itself!

Bound uniform with the S & K Dramatic Series, Net $1.75

Lucky Pehr

By AUGUST STRINDBERG

Authorized Translation by Velma Swanston Howard. An allegorical drama in five acts. Compared favorably to Barrie's "Peter Pan" and Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird."

Rochester Post Express:

Strindberg has written many plays which might be described as realistic nightmares. But this remark does not apply to "Lucky Pehr." * * * This drama is one of the most favorable specimens of Strindberg's genius.

New York World:

"Pehr" is lucky because, having tested all things, he finds that only love and duty are true.

New York Times:

"Lucky Pehr" clothes cynicism in real entertainment instead of in gloom. And it has its surprises. Can this be August Strindberg, who ends his drama so sweetly on the note of the woman-soul, leading upward and on?

Worcester Gazette:

From a city of Ohio comes this product of Swedish fancy in most attractive attire, attesting that the possibilities of dramatic art have not entirely ceased in this age of vaudeville and moving pictures. A great sermon in altruism is preached in these pages, which we would that millions might see and hear. To those who think or would like to think, "Lucky Pehr" will prove a most readable book. * * * An allegory, it is true, but so are Æsop's Fables, the Parables of the Scriptures and many others of the most effective lessons ever given.

Boston Globe:

A popular drama. * * * There is no doubt about the book being a delightful companion in the library. In charm of fancy and grace of imagery the story may not be unfairly classed with "The Blue Bird" and "Peter Pan."

Photogravure frontispiece of Strindberg etched by Zorn. Also, a reproduction of Velma Swanston Howard's authorization.

Handsomely bound. Gilt top Net, $1.75

Easter

(A Play in Three Acts)

AND STORIES BY AUGUST STRINDBERG

Authorized translation by Velma Swanston Howard. In this work the author reveals a broad tolerance, a rare poetic tenderness augmented by an almost divine understanding of human frailties as marking certain natural stages in evolution of the soul.

Louisville Courier-Journal:

Here is a major key of cheerfulness and idealism—a relief to a reader who has passed through some of the author's morbid pages. * * * Some critics find in this play (Easter) less of the thrust of a distinctive art than is found in the author's more lugubrious dramas. There is indeed less sting in it. Nevertheless it has a nobler tone. It more ably fulfills the purpose of good drama—the chastening of the spectators' hearts through their participation in the suffering of the dramatic personages. There is in the play a mystical exaltation, a belief and trust in good and its power to embrace all in its beneficence, to bring all confusion to harmony.

The Nation:

Those who like the variety of symbolism which Maeterlinck has often employed—most notably in the "Bluebird"—will turn with pleasure to the short stories of Strindberg which Mrs. Howard has included in her volume. * * * They are one and all diverting on account of the author's facility in dealing with fanciful details.

Bookseller:

"Easter" is a play of six characters illustrative of human frailties and the effect of the divine power of tolerance and charity. * * * There is a symbolism, a poetic quality, a spiritual insight in the author's work that make a direct appeal to the cultured. * * *

The Dial:

One play from his (Strindberg's) third, or symbolistic period stands almost alone. This is "Easter." There is a sweet, sane, life-giving spirit about it.

Photogravure frontispiece of Strindberg etched by Zorn. Also, a reproduction of Velma Swanston Howard's authorization.

Handsomely bound. Gilt top Net, $1.75

The Hamlet Problem and Its Solution

By EMERSON VENABLE

The tragedy of Hamlet has never been adequately interpreted. Two hundred years of critical discussion has not sufficed to reconcile conflicting impressions regarding the scope of Shakespeare's design in this, the first of his great philosophic tragedies. We believe that all those students who are interested in the study of Shakespeare will find this volume of great value.

The Louisville Courier-Journal:

"Mr. Venable's Hamlet is a 'protagonist of a drama of triumphant moral achievement.' He rises through the play from an elected agent of vengeance to a man gravely impressed with 'an imperative sense of moral obligation, tragic in its depth, felt toward the world.'"

E. H. Sothern:

"Your ideas of Hamlet so entirely agree with my own that the book has been a real delight to me. I have always had exactly this feeling about the character of Hamlet. I think you have wiped away a great many cobwebs, and I believe your book will prove to be most convincing to many people who may yet be a trifle in the dark."

The Book News Monthly:

"Mr. Venable is the latest critic to apply himself to the 'Hamlet' problem, and he offers a solution in an admirably written little book which is sure to attract readers. Undeterred by the formidable names of Goethe and Coleridge, Mr. Venable pronounces untenable the theories which those great authors propounded to account for the extraordinary figure of the Prince of Denmark. * * * Mr. Venable looks in another direction for the solution of the problem. * * * The solution offered by the author is just the reverse of that proposed by Goethe. * * * From Mr. Venable's viewpoint the key to 'Hamlet' is found in the famous soliloquies, and his book is based upon a close study of those utterances which bring us within the portals of the soul of the real Hamlet. The reader with an open mind will find in Mr. Venable a writer whose breadth of view and searching thought gives weight to this competent study of the most interesting of Shakespearean problems."

16mo. Silk cloth Net, $1.00

Portmanteau Plays

BY STUART WALKER

Edited and with an Introduction by

EDWARD HALE BIERSTADT

This volume contains four One Act Plays by the inventor and director of the Portmanteau Theater. They are all included in the regular repertory of the Theater and the four contained in this volume comprise in themselves an evening's bill.

There is also an Introduction by Edward Hale Bierstadt on the Portmanteau Theater in theory and practice.

The book is illustrated by pictures taken from actual presentations of the plays.

The first play, the "Trimplet," deals with the search for a certain magic thing called a trimplet which can cure all the ills of whoever finds it. The search and the finding constitute the action of the piece.

Second play, "Six who Pass While the Lentils Boil" is perhaps the most popular in Mr. Walker's repertory. The story is of a Queen who, having stepped on the ring-toe of the King's great-aunt, is condemned to die before the clock strikes twelve. The Six who pass the pot in which boil the lentils are on their way to the execution.

Next comes "Nevertheless," which tells of a burglar who oddly enough reaches regeneration through two children and a dictionary.

And last of all is the "Medicine-Show," which is a character study situated on the banks of the Mississippi. One does not see either the Show or the Mississippi, but the characters are so all sufficient that one does not miss the others.

All of these plays are fanciful—symbolic if you like—but all of them have a very distinct raison d'être in themselves, quite apart from any ulterior meaning.

With Mr. Walker it is always "the story first," and herein he is at one with Lord Dunsany and others of his ilk. The plays have body, force, and beauty always; and if the reader desires to read in anything else surely that is his privilege.

Each play, and even the Theater itself has a prologue, and with the help of these one is enabled to pass from one charming tale to the next without a break in the continuity.

With five full-page illustrations on cameo paper.

12mo. Silk cloth $1.75

The Truth About The Theater

Anonymous

Precisely what the title indicates—facts as they are, plain and unmistakable without veneer of any sort. It goes directly to the heart of the whole matter. Behind the writer of it—who is one of the best known theatrical men in New York—are long years of experience. He recites what he knows, what he has seen, and his quiet, calm, authoritative account of conditions as they are is without adornment, excuse or exaggeration. It is intended to be helpful to those who want the facts, and for them it will prove of immeasurable value.

"The Truth About the Theater," in brief, lifts the curtain on the American stage. It leaves no phase of the subject untouched. To those who are ambitious to serve the theater, either as players or as playwrights, or, again, in some managerial capacity, the book is invaluable. To those, too, who would know more about the theater that they may come to some fair estimate of the worth of the innumerable theories nowadays advanced, the book will again prove its value.

Net $1.00

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