Discovering Great Plays: As Literature and as Philosophy

Based on a series of lectures by Leonard Peikoff and edited by Marlene Trollope, Discovering Great Plays provides the ability to understand, judge and savor the values offered by great drama. Plays discussed Antigone by Sophocles; Othello by Shakespeare; Le Cid by Corneille; Don Carlos by Schiller; An Enemy of the People by Ibsen; Saint Joan by Shaw; Monna Vanna by Maeterlinck, and Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand. A list of recommended editions and translations is provided by the author. Readers will discover plot-theme as the key to a play; Antigone as a great heroine; Iago as the blackest villain in literature; the Cornelian hero; Schiller’s Grand Inquisitor scene as the most dramatic and philosophic in all theater; Ibsen and Ayn Rand’s Howard Roark; Shaw’s genius in presenting the genius against society; and Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostand. • About the Leonard Peikoff is the preeminent Rand Scholar writing today. He has taught philosophy at several places including Hunter College and New York University. Dr. Peikoff is author of The DIM Why the Lights of the West are Going Out, The Cause of Hitler’s Germany, and The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.