With typical critical flair, Raymond Williams examines the development of the dramatic form from Henrik Ibsen to Bertolt Brecht. Taking an expansive view of drama from around the world, he offers the reader profound insights into the role of theatre in society and into the workings of dramatic language. This is seminal reading for theatre-goers and literature students alike.

Raymond Williamswas born in 1921 in the Welsh border village of Pandy, and was educated at the village school, at Abergavenny Grammar School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After serving in the war as an anti-tank captain, he became an adult education tutor in the Oxford University Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies. In 1947 he was an editor ofPolitics and Letters, and in the 1960s was general editor of theNew Thinkers Library. He was elected Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1961 and was later appointed Professor of Drama.

His books includeCulture and Society(1958),The Long Revolution(1961) and its sequelTowards 2000(1983);Communications(1962) andTelevision: Technology and Cultural Form(1974);Drama in Performance(1954),Modern Tragedy(1966) andDrama from Ibsen to Brecht(1968);The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence(1970),Orwell(1971) andThe Country and the City(1973);Politics and Letters(interviews) (1979) andProblems in Materialism and Culture(selected essays) (1980); and four novels the Welsh trilogy ofBorder Country(1960),Second Generation(1964) andThe Fight for Manod(1979), andThe Volunteers(1978).

Raymond Williams was married in 1942, had three children, and divided his time between Saffron Walden, near Cambridge, and Wales. He died in 1988.