Home on the Stage

Nicholas Grene is Professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, a Senior Fellow of the College, a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He has published widely on Shakespeare, drama, and Irish literature, and his books include Bernard Shaw: A Critical View (1984), Shakespeare's Tragic Imagination (1992), The Politics of Irish Drama (Cambridge, 1999) and Shakespeare's Serial History Plays (Cambridge, 2002). Among his most recent books are Yeats's Poetic Codes (2008), the New Mermaids edition of Major Barbara (2008), Synge and Edwardian Ireland (co-edited with Brian Cliff, 2011), and a memoir Nothing Quite Like It: An American-Irish Childhood (2011). He has been invited to speak in over twenty countries and has been a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales, Dartmouth College and the University of Paris IV (Sorbonne).

• Introduction: Ibsen and after; 1. A Doll's House: the drama of the interior; 2. The Cherry Orchard: all Russia; 3. Heartbreak House: waiting for the Zeppelin; 4. Long Day's Journey into Night: the Tyrones at home in America; 5. A Streetcar Named Desire: see-through representation; 6. Endgame: in the refuge; 7. The Homecoming: men's room; 8. Arcadia: seeing double; 9. Topdog/Underdog: welcome to the family; Conclusion: home base.

'Suggestive and insightful.' Irish Times