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1971 BOOK REVIEWS 121 how much aware Cocteau really was of his shortcomings, but the idea orients us sympathetically towards the author without exaggerating his accomplishments and makes his dependence upon artistic catalysts (from Stravinsky to Sartre) rather touching. Yet this bit of psychoanalysis which is offered as a key to the artistic personality does not open up the whole Cocteau. Mrs. Knapp would have to treat more fully Cocteau as an extrovert homosexual of the Parisian arty circles to bring out the person and to explain his characters, plots, dialogues, and all the razzmatazz of his life and works. This is hard to do for outsiders and, with the exception of Roger Lannes, the main critics of Cocteau have been foreign univer· sity professors. Frederick Brown has done it best; more, however, to condemn the man than to explain the artist. Mrs. Knapp is objective enough, but her thesis of "inspiration through emulation" gives only one piece of the man behind the work. Other studies like Brown's and Fowlie's have given us more vivfd pictures of Cocteau the man, Oxenhandler's has given deeper literary analysis-all three seem to me more gracefully written. Is there anything that Mrs. Knapp gives beyond the call of duty to the World Authors Series besides what I may have overempha· sized in calling a thesis? Probably only in the fair and generous response that she makes to the call of duty. The content of each work is fully described as well as are the factual circumstances of its creation. Care is taken, moreover, to place it properly against the overall artistic production of the day. Periodic cross-sectioning of the literary situation in France and point-by-point comparison of Cocteau with his peers contribute much to the value of this book. Here we can see clearly Cocteau vis-a·vis Giraudoux and Claudel, Cocteau and the Surrealists, Cocteau and the Existentialists, Cocteau and the dramatists of the absurd. To determine Cocteau 's originality, Mrs. Knapp has, as no one before her, methodically ticked off a list of items and tallied the score. LAURENT LESAGE Pennsylvania State University ON THRONES OF GOLD: THREE JAYA.NESE SHADOW PLAYS, edited with an introduction by James H. Brandon. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. 407 pp. $15.00. Professor Brandon has broken new ground with this very welcome book on the Javanese shadow play. It is a subject that has remained little more than a name from traveller's tales for most people. Theater students will have a particular cause to be grateful for this first detailed study in English. It is an invaluable work. Three classically structured Javanese shadow plays have been selected for a translation that includes descriptions and commentaries on the physical action as well as the dialogues. The movements of the puppets, the gamelan cues, in fact, the whole stage business, are set down in correct sequence. To my mind it is one of the most satisfactory ways of dealing with Asian plays in translation. Without a knowledge of details like these, Asian dramatic texts can become tedious for the non-specialist. By his use of this method, Professor Brandon has given us a very clear and comprehensive idea of the way a complex theatrical form functions in performance. The black and white photographs which illustrate the texts in sequence are sensitively chosen and provide a helpful visual emphasis. The shadow play is a subtle combination of elements. Unless one has sat through the hot Indonesian night, the mind caught up by the flowing rhythms of the big xylophones and the high pitched cadences of the women singers, it is not easy to 122 MODERN DRAMA lVlay sense the spirit of a Javanese performance in cold print. Music is the essence of the shadow world. For all that, this book is a workmanlike guide that opens the reader's eyes to the pattern of shifting nuances between the screen, the puppeteer, and the gamelan. The ubiquitous clowns, Semar and his two sons, Gareng and Petruk, appear in these plays. No Indonesian could imagine the shadow play, indeed the world, without these grotesques. They are an indispensable part of national...

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