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Two Books on Brecht

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2021

Extract

It is safe to assume that Mr. Willett knows as much about the work of Brecht as anyone else ever has, including Brecht himself, who hadn't a very good memory. The amount of research that has gone into The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht is prodigious, and happily the facts come to us filtered through a mind, not heaped-up by a research staff. If I say that the result is an illustrated catalogue, I should add that I like illustrated catalogues, and that this may well be the best such catalogue on the book market. The illustrations (to begin with) are mostly good in themselves and invariably relevant to the subject; the job of tracking them down must have been a formidable one, as Brecht left his traces in all manner of by-ways but seldom on the main highway. Brecht also cultivated his own brand of esotericism, so that, through the years, just finding his writings took more energy than reading them.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Tulane Drama Review 1960

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References

An essay review of John Willett's, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht, New Directions, 1959 and Martin Esslin's, Brecht: His Life and Work, Doubleday & Co., 1960.