The Maids/Deathwatch

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Summary

The two plays collected in this volume represent Genet’s first attempts to analyze the mores of a bourgeois society he had previously been content simply to vilify. In The Maids, two domestic workers, deeply resentful of their inferior social position, try to revenge themselves against society by destroying their employer. When their attempt to betray their mistress’s lover to the police fails and they are in danger of being found out, they dream of murdering Madame, little aware of the true power behind their darkest fantasy.

In Deathwatch, two convicts try to impress a third, who is on the verge of achieving legendary status in criminal circles. But neither realizes the lengths to which they will go to gain respect or that, in the end, nothing they can do—including murder—will get them what they are searching for.

Product details

• Authors: Jean Genet, Genet Jean
• Assisted by: Jean-Paul Sartre (Foreword), Bernard Frechtman (Translation)
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.08.2000
• EAN: 9780802150561
• ISBN: 978-0-8021-5056-1
• Dimensions: 136 mm x 208 mm x 14 mm
• Series: Genet, Jean; Genet, Jean
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; France, Relating to Gay, Lesbian & bisexual people, Plays, Playscripts, TOPICAL / LGBT, bourgeois society;police;murder;criminals