Four Major Plays (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Until now, I haven't been one given to commenting on Lorca's plays; for one thing, whilst I love his plays, I am far more 'in tune' with his poetry and therefore feel better able to comment on such works. Not that I don't understand his plays, I do; I just 'connect' with the genre of poetry far better having first been introduced to it as a child of three years old (am now months' away from 50!). It has been a life long love of mine that is very likely going to end with Lorca (given his enormous output, he has left me more than enough to satisfy the next decade or two perhaps!).

The second reason I shy away from comment is that in most instances there are usually more than enough reviews for one to know what one is getting! As this is not the case with this particular publication, I merely wanted to give you an outline of what you can expect (as at the time of purchasing mine and this not being available in any of my local book stores, I too would have liked to know).

Firstly this is not a bilingual edition, so if you are a student studying such works for 'A' level (or even Uni) then this is very likely going to be unsuitable for you, other than as an aside perhaps to compare translations. I believe what this book does is merely make Lorca's major works accessible to an English speaking audience who has no requirement for the original Spanish.

The translations of John Edmunds seem pretty decent to me. However, I should point out that I don't speak Spanish; my 13 year old daughter is five years in with such studies and two of her tutors are native Spaniards; they've examined this and see few issues worthy of complaint . . . other than they would wish my daughter to read the Spanish! However, when one reads such works as obsessively as I do with Lorca, it isn't too difficult to begin to know instinctively what is working and what is not and I am certainly not willing to cast this edition out of its place on my book shelves.

There is a 37 page introduction by the translator and it is more than sufficient to be able to 'get into' the individual works. A two page chronology of Lorca's life has also been provided, primarily focusing on his published works . . . and of course that final, awful event which ended his life. Explanatory notes are also provided at the back of the book.

The works in this edition are Blood Wedding, Yerma, The House of Bernarda Alba and Dona Rosita the Spinster.

A worthy enough edition for English speaking audiences. Although I prefer my bilingual 'stand alone' editions, I have rated this as five stars. To have downgraded it for not being bilingual, which it does not purport to be, would have been grossly unfair.