In POT BOUILLE, the well-known French novelist Emile Zola and dramatist William Busnach combine their talents to unmask the hypocrisy that hides behind the facade of a respectable and fashionable Parisian apartment house. The Josserands are struggling to make ends meet, and at the same time to marry off their two daughters to prosperous businessmen. At the heart of this broken family is a weak husband and domineering, spendthrift wife, who between them create two willful children who are doomed to unhappy lives. The sly and adulterous Berthe seduces a shop owner into marriage, and Hortense...

Based on Zola's 1867 novel, and dramatized by the author in 1873, this play is almost a French version of the Russian novel, Crime and Punishment. Therese and her lover, Laurent, decide to kill her likable but sickly husband, Camille (also her husband), and succeed in doing so without arousing any suspicion. The boating accident that ends Camille's life also makes Laurent a hero for rescuing Therese. The lovers remain apart for a year, until friends of the family suggest they marry. But both are remorseful and guilt-ridden. Finally, Therese's mother discovers the truth, but suffers a stroke...

Jack the Ripper is one of the most enduring archetypes in criminal fiction. This book presents, for the first time in English, two of the earliest pieces of Ripper fiction ever written in French: Gaston Marot & Louis Pericaud's stage play Jack the Ripper from 1889, and No. 16 of the French pulp series The Secret Files of the King of Detectives (which later became Harry Dickson) from 1908 in which the Great Detective matches his wits against Jack the Ripper. These two stories are translated by Frank J. Morlock, author of Sherlock Holmes: The Grand Horizontals.

Three plays by the well-known American dramatist and translator, Frank J. Morlock. THE YIDDISH HAMLET, adapted from a story by Israel Zangwill, focuses on a conceited Jewish playwright who's penned a "modern" version of Hamlet. His satisfaction at having his drama produced turns to horror when he discovers that Goldberg, the manager, has converted his "masterpiece" into a comedy THE CONGRESSMAN'S NIGHTMARE, suggested by a French play, occurs when the statesman's beautiful but spendthrift ex-wife, now a call girl, forces her way back into his apartment, thereby threatening his appointment as...

These eight short plays by Louis Carmontelle, Thomas Gueulette, Jan Potocki, and Russian Empress Catherine II the Great (of all people ) were all the rage in eighteenth-century France--short skits that could easily be performed by amateur companies. Since they weren't writing "literature," the authors of these pieces could create anything without adhering to the "dramatic rules." And invent they did Bawdy, even obscene humor permeates many of these works. All of them are wacky, anything-for-a-laugh comedies with little or no attention paid to logic, plots, or themes--just a series of zany,...

A collection of seven comedies and dramas by an American playwright. THE ROSE PRINCESS, THE GOLDEN GOBLIN, and FROGGY are fairy tales for slightly depraved children. All three have quasi-medieval settings, and are sassy, irreverent, and fun to perform. REHEARSING DON QUIXOTE is a comedy of students being enlisted in a new version of Don Quixote--only to drive their teacher to distraction. BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, based on a story by Arlo Bates, focuses on three women mourning the death of their "fiance" during the Civil War--only to discover that he's not quite dead yet CHRISTMAS AT THOMPSON...