Excerpt from Brieux and Contemporary French Society<br><br>HE purpose of this book is to explain to Ameri can readers the social themes treated by Eugene Brieux in his dramas and their relation to French society. I realize very well that such an undertaking is not easy; the difficulties in any attempt to estimate contemporary foreign litera ture are many and real. It is always hazardous to judge contemporary writers, and French literature is possibly even more baffling than that of most countries for a foreigner to criticize. At least Renan declared that the essential characteristic of the French genius was not to be well under stood abroad; and Henry Bidou has recently asserted that it is stupefying to read what a foreigner will write when discussing French litera ture. Yet the attempt to explain Brieux seems justified in view of the great demand for the few available books on him and on such contemporaries of his as Ibsen, Strindberg, and Shaw.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.