Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934, Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) explored such themes as the relativity of truth, the vanity and necessity of illusion, and the instability of human personality. In this famous play, an expressionistic parable set in a small Italian town in the early twentieth century, Pirandello skillfully dramatizes these issues.
The observer Laudisi derides the townspeople for their insistence on knowing the secrets of Mrs. Frola and her married daughter: Why does Mrs. Frola live alone and not with her daughter? Why do the two never visit each other? The answers to these questions lie at the heart of this play and at the center of Pirandello's artistic vision. Presented in an excellent new English translation, this inexpensive edition will delight students and lovers of modern drama.