这部短篇小说集，是从《世界文学》杂志2005至2010年间发表的短篇小说中精选出来的世界各国最优秀的短篇小说，其中包括加拿大最杰出的作家玛·阿特伍德的《霍拉旭的叙述》、2006年诺贝尔文学奖得主奥·帕慕克的《凝望窗外》、2008年诺贝尔文学奖得主勒克莱齐奥的《我觉得船儿驶向小岛》、科尔姆·托宾的《著名的蓝雨衣》等。

This comprehensive volume contains nine of the most important, most indispensable plays of the modern theater. What Harold Clurman has done in this seminal collection is to create for us a portrait of the progress and turmoil of the twentieth century.

Harold Pinter is known to both British and American theater audiences as one of the most exciting and accomplished playwrights of our time. Betrayal is Pinter's latest full-length play since the enormous success of No Man's Land.
The play begins in 1977, with a meeting between adulterous lovers, Emma and Jerry, two years after their affair has ended. During the nine scenes of the play, we move back in time, through the stages of their affair, with the play ending in the house of Emma and Robert, her husband, who is Jerry's best friend.

Harold Pinter is one of our most profound poers and playwrights, with work ranging from his plays The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal to such poems as "The Bombs" and "Death." A writer known for his searing exploration of power, Pinter gives us an electrifying look into the often uncomfortable relationships between people--whether family members or political opponents. The Essential Pinter, which includes key plays, poetry, essays, and screenplays, is an indispensable companion for anyone wishing to delve into the astonishingly dazzling and frequently ominous world of Harold Pinter. In voyaging in, we not only come to fully appreciate the breadth of a body of work spanning over fifty years, but acquire a better understanding of human interaction.

The Caretaker was Harold Pinter's first play to become a major success, first performed in 1960, this classic comedy established the author's individuality with an international audience.

Gus and Ben are on the job, waiting and listening. Into the waiting silence rattles the dumb waiter with extraordinary demands for dishes they cannot supply - and who is operating the dumb waiter in an empty house? In a while their victim will come and they will know what to do.

In an old and slightly seedy house in North London there lives a family of men: Max, the aging but still aggressive patriarch; his younger, ineffectual brother Sam; and two of Max's three sons, neither of whom is married -- Lenny, a small-time pimp, and Joey, who dreams of success as a boxer. Into this sinister abode comes the eldest son, Teddy, who, having spent the past six years teaching philosophy in America, is now bringinghis wife, Ruth, home to visit the family she has never met. As the play progresses, the younger brothers make increasingly outrageous passes at their sister-in-law until they are practically making love to her in front of her stunned but strangely aloof husband.

In The Birthday Party, a musician who escapes to a dilapidated boarding house becomes the victim of a ritual murder in which everyone- assassins, victim, and observers- implacably plays out the role assigned him by fate.The Room, a derelict boarding house again becomes the scene of a visitation of fate when a blind Black man suddenly arrives to deliver a mysterious message.

Harold Pinter has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential playwrights in contemporary theatre; his arresting and original works have left a lasting imprint on the development of the stage and screen while delighting audiences around the world.
This, the first of four volumes, contains his first five plays, including The Birthday Party (1958), his first full-length drama; as well as two short stories— The Black and White and The Examination —both written before Pinter turned to the theatre. Pinter's exacting and complex use of language and the features that mark his "comedies of menace" are clearly realized in these plays and stories. His speech Writing for the Theatre introduces the volume and establishes the context for these early years.