Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)
BOOK REVIEWS - Zoltán Szilassy: Lehel Vadon: Masterpieces of American Drama: An Anthology and Introduction. Eger: Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola, 1994. Two Volumes, Vol. I. 602 pp.; Vol. II. 576 pp
ZOLTÁN SZILASSY LEHEL VADON: MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN DRAMA: AN ANTHOLOGY AND INTRODUCTION Eger: Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola, 1994. Two Volumes, Vol. I. 602 pp.; Vol. II. 576 pp. Although a book-review should not also pose as a "list of contents" for the book it is trying to evaluate, in this case I feel inclined to do so. Lehel Vadon's elegant, impressive, hardcover edition of the abovesaid —in fact, metaphorically speaking, fruitful and, practically speaking, juicy summary of his decades-taking philological and empathy-oriented searches and researches; the two volumes also designed and, author-by-author, introduced by him —features the following unforgettables: E. G. O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night, Th. Wilder, Our Town; Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty; A. Miller, Death of a Salesman; The Crucible; T. Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire; The Glass Menagerie; E. Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Sam Shepard, Buried Child; LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka) , Dutchman. This long list of major American playwrights, and their "No.l." plays, selected for their getting anthologized for Hungarian Americanists (juniors or seniors, as they may be) raises an important question for me: is not the main title of this selection (Masterpieces of American Drama) a teeny bit misleading? Even if quite a number of experts maintain that American Drama —as such —began no sooner than with O'Neill, one still wonders whether "the Americanization of 199
