Jean Cocteau [1889 - 1963], poet, painter, dramatist, film-maker, had friends in all the performing arts and it was for two of these that he wrote the monologues translated here, including two for Edith Piaf (Le bel indifferent & Le fantme de Marseille). Although George Feydeau [1862 - 1921] is best known as a writer of farces, he started his career in 1880 with a monologue and used the form periodically for the next thirty five years. Excluding the first, which has disappeared without trace, he wrote all for performance by leading actors and actresses at charity concerts and in fashionable drawing rooms. The six monologues translated in this volume were written between 1882 and 1898. Featuring illustrations by Cocteau himself, this title was first published in hardback and is now released in a paperback edition.
