Drama Classics series

The world's great plays at a great little price

Each pocket-sized volume contains:

a full introduction
an author biography
notes on historical and theatrical context
a plot synopsis
key dates
a further reading list
a glossary of unusual words and phrases (English-language texts)

The texts are presented uncut (with the exception of Faust, which is adapted for staging in a single evening) and uncluttered with footnotes; the translations are accurate and actable.

An Ideal Husband

By Oscar Wilde

6f 9m

The Rolls-Royce of English comedies, exploring corruption and morality, and bringing an act of political sin into the heart of the English home.

The Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde

4f 5m

Oscar Wilde's undying comedy – in an edition to fit any handbag.

An Italian Straw Hat

By Eugène Labiche Translated by Kenneth McLeish

6f 12m, doubling

A classic 19th-century French farce, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

Ivanov

By Anton Chekhov Translated by Stephen Mulrine

5f 9m, extras

Chekhov's compelling early play, set in a country weighed down by political, ideological and spiritual stagnation. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

The Jew of Malta

By Christopher Marlowe

4f 11-16m plus extras, doubling possible

Christopher Marlowe's drama of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set on the island of Malta. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

King Ubu

By Alfred Jarry

2f 15m plus extras

Alfred Jarry's surreal and hilarious satire of power, greed, and bourgeois pretension, the first of his three plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu.

Published in volume Ubu

The Knight of the Burning Pestle

By Francis Beaumont

4f 12m plus extras

A classic satire on chivalric romances. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

La Ronde

By Arthur Schnitzler Translated by Stephen Unwin and Peter Zombory-Moldovan

5f 5m (1f 1m possible)

Schnitzler's famous 'daisy-chain' play of sexual coupling, set in Vienna in the 1890s. In the Drama Classics series.

The Lady From the Sea

By Henrik Ibsen Translated by Kenneth McLeish

3f 5m

One of Ibsen's most powerful studies of female psychology, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

Lady Windermere's Fan

By Oscar Wilde

9f 7m

A biting satire on the morals of Victorian society, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

The Learned Ladies

By Molière Translated by A.R. Waller

5f 8m

Molière's satire of intellectual snobbery, in a translation first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.