Sources
| Source | ID | Link |
|---|---|---|
| GoodReads | 26188838 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26188838 |
| Amazon |
Description
From the Introduction:
"No Twentieth Century collection of Little Masterpieces would be truly representative if it failed to include a group of modern one-act plays. This type of literary composition has developed remarkably since its rise in the 'Nineties, in England, France, Germany and more especially in America. It is noteworthy that American writers who have done so much with and for the short story should also have been attracted by and have shown proficiency in the composition of the one-act play. The two media, obviously, have many characteristics in common. The swiftness of movement and pitiless pruning away of non-essentials that are indispensable to both have evidently attracted a people that have the reputations of being always in a hurry.
There have of course been one-act plays of some sort, time out of mind. They were represented in the religious folk-drama of earlier centuries; in the form of farces they have long been in common use as curtain-raisers or after-pieces; and as "playlets" they have been familiar to the vaudeville audiences of the past fifty years. But the one-act plays in this volume, while differing wildly from each other, have little in common with any of the types just mentioned. The modern one-act play at its best is indubitably a work of art, and we have no hesitation in claiming consideration on this ground for the ten plays that are presented here."
Contents:
A Night at an Inn Lord Dunsany
Beauty and the Jacobin Booth Tarkington
Fortune and Men's Eyes Josephine Preston Peabody
Overtones Alice Gerstenberg
ShamFrank G. Tompkins
Eugenically Speaking Edward Goodman
The Medicine ShowStuart Walker
The Little Man John Galsworthy
The Judgment of Indra Dhan Gopal Mukerji
The Shadowed Star Mary MacMillan
"No Twentieth Century collection of Little Masterpieces would be truly representative if it failed to include a group of modern one-act plays. This type of literary composition has developed remarkably since its rise in the 'Nineties, in England, France, Germany and more especially in America. It is noteworthy that American writers who have done so much with and for the short story should also have been attracted by and have shown proficiency in the composition of the one-act play. The two media, obviously, have many characteristics in common. The swiftness of movement and pitiless pruning away of non-essentials that are indispensable to both have evidently attracted a people that have the reputations of being always in a hurry.
There have of course been one-act plays of some sort, time out of mind. They were represented in the religious folk-drama of earlier centuries; in the form of farces they have long been in common use as curtain-raisers or after-pieces; and as "playlets" they have been familiar to the vaudeville audiences of the past fifty years. But the one-act plays in this volume, while differing wildly from each other, have little in common with any of the types just mentioned. The modern one-act play at its best is indubitably a work of art, and we have no hesitation in claiming consideration on this ground for the ten plays that are presented here."
Contents:
A Night at an Inn Lord Dunsany
Beauty and the Jacobin Booth Tarkington
Fortune and Men's Eyes Josephine Preston Peabody
Overtones Alice Gerstenberg
ShamFrank G. Tompkins
Eugenically Speaking Edward Goodman
The Medicine ShowStuart Walker
The Little Man John Galsworthy
The Judgment of Indra Dhan Gopal Mukerji
The Shadowed Star Mary MacMillan