Bøker av Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht's Me-ti, which remained unpublished in his own lifetime, now appears for the first time in English. Me-ti counselled against 'constructing too complete images of the world'. For this work of fragments and episodes, Brecht accumulated anecdotes, poems, personal stories and assessments of contemporary politics. Given its controversial nature, he sought a disguise, using the name of a Chinese contemporary of Socrates, known today as Mozi. Stimulated by his humorous aphoristic style and social focus, as well as an engrained Chinese awareness of the flow of things, Brecht developed a practical, philosophical, anti-systematic ethics, discussing Marxist dialectics, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, the Moscow trials, and the theories behind current events, while warning how ideology makes people the 'servants of priests'.Me-ti is central to an understanding of Brecht's critical reflections on Marxist dialectics and his commitment to change and the non-eternal, the philosophy which informs much of his writing and his most famous plays, such as The Good Person of Szechwan. Readers will find themselves both fascinated and beguiled by the reflections and wisdom it offers. First published in German in 1965 and now translated and edited by Antony Tatlow, Brecht's Me-ti: Book of Interventions in the Flow of Things provides readers with a much-anticipated accessible edition of this important work. It features a substantial introduction to the concerns of the work, its genesis and context - both within Brecht's own writing and within the wider social and political history, and provides an original selection and organisation of texts. Extensive notes illuminate the work and provide commentary on related works from Brecht's oeuvre.

An historic publication in which the legendary dramatist emerges, quite like Goethe, as a poet driven by Eros.

This volume contains Brecht's post-1950 adaptations of world dramatic classics for the Berliner Ensemble. Brecht's remodeled versions show all of the great dramatist's characteristic preoccupations: hatred of personal greatness, admiration of the people and hatred of war unless waged on behalf of the people who, to him, were the embodiment of wisdom and good sense. The Tutor is a 1950s adaptation of an 18th century play by J.M.R. Lenz and is a savage portrait of the subservience of German intellectuals and schoolmasters to the whims of the rich and powerful. Coriolanus is an unfinished adaptation of Shakespeare's play, using the Roman story to reflect Marxist theories of class struggle. Don Juan, a collaborative adaptation of Molière's play, redefines the charming social parasite as both a ridiculous egoist and an example of a dangerously attractive, theatrically mythic personality type. The Trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen adapts a radio play by Anna Seghers which was based on the original records of the trial of Joan of Arc. Trumpets and Drums is an adaptation of Farquhar's 18th century Restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer, which transfers the action to the American Civil War and introduces comments on imperialism and colonial conquest.

Tony Kushner's lively version of Brecht's parable of good and evil presented in an English/German parallel text edition with an introduction by Tom Kuhn.

Translated by David Harrower, this version of Brecht's parable play is based on a previously unpublished version of the play.

Set in a mythical Chicago, Saint Joan of the Stockyards tells the story of a Salvation Army lieutenant who challenges the power of Pierpoint Mauler, the meat king. The play, which was never staged in Brecht's lifetime, is published here with a new translation and introductory notes.

This play, written during Brecht's exile to the United States and set in pre-Communist China, is a parable of a young woman torn between obligation and reality, between love and practicality, and between her own needs and those of her friends and neighbours.

Retells the tale of King Solomon and a child claimed by two mothers.

Brecht's operatic play produced with Hauptmann, Neher and Weill was first staged in 1930. Translated and with commentary by Steve Giles, this critical edition is the first translation into English of the approved Versuche text of 1930/1.

Includes the full German text, accompanied by German-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

One of a series of eight, this volume features the plays Man Equals Man, The Elephant Calf, The Threepenny Opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, and The Seven Deadly Sins. It includes extensive notes, as well as variant versions and relevant texts by Brecht himself.

A Student Edition of Brecht's series of inter-connected playlets that describes events which took place in German households under the rise of the Nazis. The text of the play is accompanied by an extensive commentary and study notes.

One of a series of eight, this volume features the plays Baal, Drums in the Night, In the Jungle of Cities, The Life of Edward II of England; and five one-act plays: A Respectable Wedding, The Beggar or the Dead Dog, Driving out a Devil, Lux in Tenebris and The Catch.

With each section beginning with a short introductory essay summarizing Brecht's thought in the relevant year, this volume contains new translations to extend our image of one of the 20th century's most entertaining and thought-provoking writers on culture, aesthetics and politics.

This is David Hare's version of Brecht's classic play which was premiered by the National Theatre, London, in November 1995.

In John Willett's translation, this edition contains expert notes on the author's life and work, historical and political background to the play, photographs from stage productions and a glossary of difficult words and phrases

"One of the greatest poets and dramatists of our century" (Observer)

Volume three of "Brecht's Collected Plays" brings together in paperback volume 3.i and volume 3.ii of the hardback series. Also included are Brecht's own notes and textual variants.

One of a series of eight, this volume features the plays The Visions of Simone Machard, Schweyk in the Second World War, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Brecht's adaptation of The Duchess of Malfi. It also contains extensive notes, as well as relevant texts by Brecht himself.

This text includes all of Brecht's theoretical writing about film, radio, broadcasting and the new media written between 1919 and 1956 as well as all of his important screenplays produced during the 1920's and 1930's.

Described by Brecht as "a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all", Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler - recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade.

In Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition of Brecht's anti-war masterpiece translated by John Willett features an extensive introduction and Brecht's notes and textual variants.

Repackaged and reissued, this is Brecht's classic interpretation of John Gay's The Beggars Opera. It is a vicious satire on the bourgeois capitalist society of the Weimar Republic, married with the jazz music of Kurt Weill. The text is accompanied by Brecht's original notes.

Brecht's 'learning plays', designed as short training pieces for actors, derive from the period of Brecht's most sharply Communist works.

Inspired by the Chinese play Chalk Circle, and written at the close of World War II, this parable is set in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. It re-tells the tale of King Solomon and a child claimed and fought over by two women.

One of a series of eight, this volume features the plays The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, and Mr Puntila and his Man Matti. It also contains extensive notes, as well as variant versions and relevant texts by Brecht himself.