Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three Acts by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan
"Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three Acts" by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan is a satirical play written in the early 20th century. It depicts the decadent and chaotic court life of Emperor Heliogabalus, exploring themes of excess, power, and absurdity. The central character, Heliogabalus, is portrayed as a whimsical ruler whose erratic behavior leads to comedic confrontations, especially in relation to his many wives and his personal health crises. Theopening of the play sets the stage in the imperial palace, introducing Heliogabalus and his court through a humorous exchange between his physicians, Piso and Polorus, discussing the emperor's ailments amid the backdrop of a New Year’s Eve banquet. As the physicians await the Emperor's entrance, comedic elements arise from their banter and the contrasting characters of the empress, Paula, who laments about her husband's state and their young wife, Lucia, who enters the scene. This blend of historical context, witty dialogue, and over-the-top characters establishes a lively tone that promises to explore the absurdities of imperial rule and human folly as the narrative unfolds. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read now or download (free!)
| Choose how to read this book | Url | Size | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read online (web) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.html.images | 241 kB | ||||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.epub3.images | 275 kB | ||||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.epub.images | 276 kB | ||||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.epub.noimages | 151 kB | ||||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.kf8.images | 369 kB | ||||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.kindle.images | 330 kB | ||||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61281.txt.utf-8 | 207 kB | ||||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61281/pg61281-h.zip | 307 kB | ||||
| There may bemore files related to this item. | ||||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956 |
|---|---|
| Author | Nathan, George Jean, 1882-1958 |
| LoC No. | 20013988 |
| Title | Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three Acts |
| Note | Reading ease score: 78.2 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Credits | Produced by MFR, Karin Spence and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Comedy plays |
| Subject | Elagabalus, Emperor of Rome, 204-222 -- Drama |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 61281 |
| Release Date | Jan 31, 2020 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 105 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |
