In this meeting of two of the twentieth centurys greatest playwrights, Tom Stoppard has reinvigorated Luigi Pirandellos masterpiece of madness and sanity. After a fall from his horse, an Italian aristocrat believes he is the obscure medieval German emperor Henry IV. After twenty years of living this royal illusion, his beloved appears with a noted psychiatrist to shock the madman back to sanity. Their efforts expose that for the past twelve years the nobleman has in fact been sane. With his mask of madness unveiled, the aristocrat launches an offensive to deflect their unwanted attention. While Pirandellos characters race linguistically about in Stoppardian dervishes, battling for the upper handand the greatest laughsone question emerges: What constitutes sanity?
| ISBN: | 9780802195340 |
| Publication date: | 16th May 2011 |
| Author: | Pirandello, Luigi |
| Publisher: | Grove Atlantic |
| Format: | Digital Product (Other) |