"What can be said about the work of a man like John Osborne, who always had a knack for writing the wrong things at the wrong times? Steeped in personal neurosis, Osborne peopled his plays with a cast of unappealing characters who muddle through life, tormenting themselves and others. Starting with Look Back in Anger in 1956, he defied aesthetic convention and fashionable ideology throughout his career and left behind a richly diverse, though often frustratingly complex body of work.

Despite the ambivalence of critics and audiences, he is recognized today as one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century as well as the father of modern British theater. This study by Luc Gilleman provides a fresh critical perspective on Osborne's complete oeuvre, addressing the issues in his plays most relevant today, notably the relationship between his life and work, the function of the gaze, and the construction of gender. Gilleman examines all of the major plays chronologically, offering both detailed analysis and contextual overview.

Those interested in the history of modern English-speaking theater will welcome this timely reappraisal of Osborne's provocative life and work."--BOOK JACKET.