The preface highlights the extent to which Luigi Pirandello, most famous for his play Six Characters in Search of an Author, was a multifaceted writer successful in various genres. In addition to introducing the main themes of the volume, it places some of the key questions in Pirandellian studies – philosophical relativism, metatheatre, the author’s purported cerebralism, and his relationship with the Fascist regime – in the context of the period’s theatre history, literary developments, and Pirandello’s life and career experiences. It finally shows why Pirandello’s influence was so transversal in his century and continues to be into our own and discusses recent advances in Pirandello studies.