Lajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people - their private natures and their inter-relationships - that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House? These are a few of the fascinating problems which Egri analyzes. He shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise - a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behaviour - and to develop his dramatic conflict on the basis of that behaviour. Premise, character, conflict: this is Egri's ABC. His book is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in a literary creation.
The Art of Dramatic Writing
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Moss Hart I found Lajos Egri's book enormously interesting -- one of the best I have ever read.
About the Author
Lajos Egri was born in the city of Eger, Hungary, and wrote his first three-act play at the age of ten. For more than thirty-five years he has written and directed plays in Europe and the United States. He was director of the Egri School of Writing in New York City for many years.
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A MAN sits in his workshop, busy with an invention of wheels and springs. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A MAN sits in his workshop, busy with an invention of wheels and springs. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This concerns the BN Publishing paperback edition ISBN 978-9562915861:
The people at BN Publishing, may they roast forever in literary purgatory who ever they are, have a web site with the claim 'Improving People's Life'. They improved this playwrights classic by spacing lines and paragraphs the way we do it on the web: no indents, just a blank line between the paragraphs. Then they added some odd looking formatting of headings & sub-headings. Plus typos, typos and... typos. Here and there the lines also break in funny places across the page. It's all rather sad, sloppy and annoying, though no major crime, perhaps. What in my opinion is way beyond annoying... they have quietly REMOVED WHOLE SECTIONS of the original text -- in other words, chopped the thing up and decided what we don't need to read. Or, probably, how to make money... Shame on them. Just stay away, please.
Also available these days is the Touchstone/Simon & Schuster edition -- ISBN-10 0-671-21332-6. That's got the text Egri wrote.
The people at BN Publishing, may they roast forever in literary purgatory who ever they are, have a web site with the claim 'Improving People's Life'. They improved this playwrights classic by spacing lines and paragraphs the way we do it on the web: no indents, just a blank line between the paragraphs. Then they added some odd looking formatting of headings & sub-headings. Plus typos, typos and... typos. Here and there the lines also break in funny places across the page. It's all rather sad, sloppy and annoying, though no major crime, perhaps. What in my opinion is way beyond annoying... they have quietly REMOVED WHOLE SECTIONS of the original text -- in other words, chopped the thing up and decided what we don't need to read. Or, probably, how to make money... Shame on them. Just stay away, please.
Also available these days is the Touchstone/Simon & Schuster edition -- ISBN-10 0-671-21332-6. That's got the text Egri wrote.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Don't buy this as your first introduction to dramatic writing. But if you've read Syd Field and the others, this one will take you way beyond. It might be daunting, but it will sure open your eyes to the demands of writing good drama.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you want to understand how to write drama for theatre, films or tv you will not find a better book. I'm currently reading it for the second time because it can be quite hard work at first. There have been mountains of books written on this subject but Egri's is the best despite being penned more than half a century again. A must for anyone serious about writing drama.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK
This came recommended and is very theoretical and wordy, which I don't mind, but it doesn't make for a hugely stimulating reading experience. Will it help you write a play? Read more
Published 1 month ago by Arthur's pal
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
This book more than any other "How to" book has helped me structure stories. Examples are mostly classic plays but Lajos Egri's advise holds true for any piece of creative... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs K A Robinson
4.0 out of 5 stars
A classic still relevant today
A classic by Lajos Egri which I have come to late (both for it and for me). Of course, reading in the 21st century, you have to make some allowances for a text that was first... Read more
Published 12 months ago by David Williams
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not the best.
This book was published long ago and, while it must have been indispensable back then, it cannot compete today with books such as Screenplay, Making a Good Script Great and... Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2010 by Yarasmodai
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really shouldn't have waited
When I went to film school, the first book my script writing teacher told me to get was 'The Art of Dramatic Writing'. So, I went to the bookstore and duly bought it. Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by Sleeve
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rewarding if you make it to the end.
This book is not for the faint-hearted and definitely not for the writers who are just starting out. It is harder to get into than the Pentagon and is heavy going throughout. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2009 by J. Staniford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mr. Egri's Masterpiece
Excellent fundamental advice and instruction for a creative writer. Easy to read, with interesting metaphors and motifs for any aspiring composer of dramatic stories. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2009 by Harry Boyd
3.0 out of 5 stars
somewhat disappointing
This book has received many positive reviews so maybe my expectations were simply too high. I did not find this book particularly inspiring. Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2008 by Erik Norgaard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Woody Allen Recommended This Book
Woody Allen said of Lajos Egri "I still think his 'The Art of Dramatic Writing' is the most stimulating and best book on the subject ever written, and I have them all. Read more
Published on 7 May 2008 by Will Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable advice from a genius
I must have nearly 20 books on the subject of writing fiction. But two books stand out; this and Egri's other book - The Art Of creative Writing. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2006 by pl240596
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