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3.5 

The Balcony

By Jean Genet
The Balcony by Jean Genet digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

In the midst of a city ravaged by violent rebellion, a brothel caters to the elaborate role-playing fantasies of men from all walks of life. A gas company worker pretends to be a bishop while, in the next room, another customer dons a judge's robe to savor the erotic pleasures of meting out justice—and punishment. These perverse costumed masquerades parody the larger, more violent dramas of the outside world. But as the anarchic political struggle threatens to topple society, even the revolutionaries come to believe that illusions are preferable to reality.   A poet, novelist, playwright, and outlaw, Jean Genet helped define French existential theater of the mid-twentieth century. Deeply influential and widely acclaimed, Genet's presents an unrelentingly profound and critical reflection of contemporary society.

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About Jean Genet

Book jacket/back: The setting of Jean Genet's celebrated play is a brothel that caters to refined sensibilities and peculiar tastes. Here men from all walks of life don the garb of their fantasies and act them out: a man from the gas company wears the robe and mitre of a bishop; another customer becomes a flagellant judge, and still another a victorious general, while a bank clerk defiles the Virgin mary. These costumed diversions take place while outside a revolution rages which has isolated the brothel from the rest of the rebel-controlled city. In a stunning series of macabre, climactic scenes, Genet presents his caustic view of man and society.

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