Eight Great Comedies: The Complete Texts of the World's Great Comedies from Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century

“A remarkably rich and stimulating volume...A unique blending of emotional and intellectual experience.”—Los Angeles Times

Here in one volume are the complete texts of eight of the world’s greatest plays, masterful examples of the comic view of life in drama. This outstanding treasury of great reading includes the bawdy humor of Machiavelli’s Mandragola; the poignant, searching wit of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya; the ironic social comment of Shaw’s Arms and the Man; and five other influential works, including a new translation of Molière’s satire The Miser, which the editors have prepared especially for this book.

Accompanied by provocative essays that define and explore the spirit, structure, and meaning of comedy, this unique volume is an ideal companion to the editors’ Eight Great Tragedies.

Sylvan Barnet wrote numerous texts analyzing the works of Shakespeare as well as the writing craft. He was the general editor for Signet Classics Shakespeare as well as professor emeritus at Tufts University. He died in 2016.

Morton Berman is professor emeritus of English as Boston University.

William Burto served as the chair of the Department of English as Lowell State College, which became University of Massachusetts-Lowell. He wrote several texts focusing on the poetry of Shakespeare. He died in 2013.