Eight Great Tragedies

Editors: Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto

Publisher: A Mentor Book

Edition: 1957

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 443

Size: 4.5 × 1 × 7 inches

Language:English

  Eight Great Tragedies is an anthology devoted to one of the oldest and most influential forms of Western dramatic literature: tragedy. Edited by Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, and William Burto, the volume brings together major tragic works and provides readers with an opportunity to consider the development of the genre across different literary traditions. Tragedy has traditionally focused on characters confronted by powerful conflicts, irreversible choices, personal flaws, social pressures, or forces beyond their control. The genre has produced some of the most enduring works of world literature, exploring fundamental questions concerning human nature, responsibility, suffering, justice, power, and mortality. The anthology is particularly useful for readers studying dramatic literature and theatre history. Reading several major tragedies together allows the development of recurring dramatic ideas and structures to be examined across different works. Themes such as ambition, revenge, jealousy, political conflict, family relationships, fate, and moral responsibility appear repeatedly throughout the tragic tradition, although each dramatist approaches them differently. The editors, Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, and William Burto, were associated with the teaching and study of drama and literature. Their editorial work helped make major dramatic texts accessible to students and general readers, particularly through the widely circulated paperback tradition of twentieth-century American publishing. Published as A Mentor Book in 1957, this edition belongs to the era when affordable paperback anthologies played an important role in making literary classics available to a broad reading audience. The Mentor imprint became associated with accessible editions of literature, history, philosophy, and other subjects of general intellectual interest. With 443 pages, this is a substantial anthology rather than a brief selection. Its 4.5 × 1 × 7 inch format makes it a compact vintage paperback suitable for both reading and collection. It will be of particular interest to readers building collections around dramatic literature, Shakespeare, classical tragedy, theatre studies, and vintage American paperbacks.

• Title: Eight Great Tragedies
• Editors: Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto
• Publisher: A Mentor Book
• Edition: 1957
• Binding: Paperback
• Pages: 443
• Size: 4.5 × 1 × 7 inches
• Language: English
• Genre: Drama / Literary Anthology
• Subject: Tragedy, dramatic literature, theatre history, classical drama
• Format: Vintage Mentor paperback
• Ideal for: Literature students, theatre enthusiasts, drama scholars, collectors of classic plays, and readers interested in the history of tragedy

🔹 Collector's Note

This 1957 Mentor Books paperback edition of Eight Great Tragedies is an appealing vintage literary anthology for collectors interested in drama, theatre history, and classic literature. Edited by Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, and William Burto, the substantial 443-page volume reflects the mid-twentieth-century paperback tradition of making important dramatic works accessible to students and general readers. Its compact vintage format and literary subject make it a useful addition to collections of classic drama and theatre literature.