"The Maids" / "Deathwatch": Two Plays - Softcover

Jean-genet; Bernard Frechtman; Jean-Paul Sartre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571148565 ISBN 13: 9780571148561

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 1989

Synopsis

These two plays which are brought together with an introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre, reflect Jean Genet's obsession with the problems of sexual identity, reality and make-believe and the uncertainty of moral absolutes. "Deathwatch", Genet's first play, focuses on three inmates of a prison cell: Green Eyes, Lefranc and Maurice. In an interplay of power and fantasy, the action culminates in the violent murder of one at the hands of his scheming cell-mates. The two protagonists of "The Maids" indulge in erotic and secret rituals of hate and revenge, directed against their wealthy employers. But they are condemned to remain prisoners of their own delusions, with a fateful consequence.

About this title

About the Author:

Jean Genet was born in Paris in 1910. An illegitimate child who never knew his parents, he was abandoned to the Public Assistance Authorities. He was ten when he was sent to a reformatory for stealing; thereafter he spent time in the prisons of nearly every country he visited in thirty years of prowling through the European underworld. With ten convictions for theft in France to his credit he was, the eleventh time, condemned to life imprisonment. Eventually he was granted a pardon by President Auriol as a result of appeals from France's leading artists and writers led by Jean Cocteau.$$$His first novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, was written while he was in prison, followed by Miracle of the Rose, the autobiographical The Thief's Journal, Querelle of Brest and Funeral Rites. He wrote six plays: The Balcony, The Blacks, The Screens, The Maids, Deathwatch and Splendid's (the manuscript of which was rediscovered only in 1993). Jean Genet died in 1986.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0571148565
• ISBN 13: 9780571148561
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166