Before Daybreak, the first important drama of German naturalism, was also the first play of Gerhart Hauptmann, the most significant naturalist of the theater. The translation, preceded by a critical introduction which places this play in historical context and discusses its form and content, is the first colloquially convincing English version that captures the several levels of diction in this seminal modern drama. Originally published in 1978. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

What was German Naturalism? What were its achievements? How does it compare with its counterparts in other European countries? These are some of the difficult questions addressed by John Osborne in Gerhart Hauptmann and the Naturalist Drama, a revised and updated version of his The Naturalist Drama in Germany, now widely acknowledged as the standard introduction to the subject. The debates to which he contributed, and in some cases initiated, on Naturalism in the German theatre, Naturalist theory in Germany, and the development of the Naturalist movement to the contemporary Social Democrat movement, have remained central issues. This revised edition preserves the structure and approach of the original, including its emphasis on the early dramas of Hauptmann, while taking full account of subsequent scholarship which provides the context in which this Naturalist playwright's work can be placed.

Here is a unique and able appraisal of the prose plays of the modern German dramatist, Gerhart Hauptmann. A popular and controversial figure some fifty years ago when he was the chief representative of the German drama. Hauptmann was comparable in stature to Shaw in his native land, and his works have received the same wide recognition. Today, as for the past sixty years, his plays are being acted in all German-speaking countries. In West Germany alone, there have been some eight hundred yearly performances of his prose plays since the end of the Second World War. No one has filled his place, the drama having temporarily ceased to be the chief literary expression for the problem of the epoch, as it was at the turn of the century. Miss Sinden’s work brings out clearly that there was no other contemporary dramatist of Hauptmann’s stature in Germany. Very little has been available heretofore in English on Hauptmann. Miss Sinden provides an extensive analysis and a careful consideration of the biographical, ethical, and aesthetic aspects of the prose dramas, bringing out the growth and decline of Hauptmann’s powers as a dramatist. Her interpretations of the female characters are particularly valuable. Her account as a whole is written with warmth and humanity. It opens up, at the same time, an epoch of struggle, social and political, which in itself is important to an understanding of contemporary Germany.

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