Woyzeck (NHB Classic Plays) - Softcover

Büchner's play is amazing, written in the 19th century but widely regarded as the first truly "modern" drama. It was based on the real-life case of a barber who stabbed his mistress in a fit of jealousy and was sentenced to death in 1821. A classic study, you might think, of violence prompted by sexual rage. But in Büchner's fragmented scenes it becomes something else altogether: a naturalistic tragedy, a damning social critique, a lower-class King Lear, a debate on free will and determinism. Hold it up to the light and it always takes on a different colour. --Guardian

Georg Büchner ( 1813 - 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany. It is widely believed that, but for his early death, he might have attained the significance of such central German literary figures as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.