Within so notable a range of subjects The Playwright as Thinker manages to say a surprising lot, and amid so much knowledge, scope and even prophecy, to omit vast quantities of nonsense and vapor. The Foreword is a good start in itself, and the subjects presented thereafter are such as the two traditions that modern drama must cope with: tragedy in modern dress; tragedy in fancy dress; Wagner and Ibsen: a contrast; Bernard Shaw; varieties of comic experience; August Strindberg; from Strindberg to Jean-Paul Sartre; from Strindberg to Bertold Brecht; Broadway and the alternative; and then a series of notes on various authors and designers, critics and persons otherwise.

Mr. Bentley is both younger than I am and more amiable, for he seems to have read books on the theatre that after the first page, or after catching sight of the author's name, I should never have read...