These four Russian comedies were written during the reign of Nicholas I, a period of considerable repression and censorship. They represent the most popular genres of the period.
Lensky's
Her First Night
was an immensely popular vaudeville which held the stage for years; Kozma Prutkov's
Fantasy
is a parody of vaudeville which was banned after one night. Turgenev's
Luncheon with the Marshal
is a comedy of manners about provincial life, and Saltykov-Schedrin's Pazukhin's
Death
is a satire of greed and corruption so savage that it was forbidden during the author's lifetime.
This collection constitutes a remarkable comic spectrum which will assist in enlarging the English language repertoire with a set of newly available and hightly stageworthy scripts.