{"product_id":"9781439123799","title":"The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives","description":"Amid the hundreds of \"how-to\" books that have appeared in recent years, there have been very few which attempted to analyze the mysteries of play-construction. This book does that -- and its principles are so valid that they apply equally well to the short story, novel and screenplay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people -- their private natures and their inter-relationships -- that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese are a few of the fascinating problems which Egri analyzes. He shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise -- a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior -- and to develop his dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior. Premise, character, conflict: this is Egri's ABC. His book is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in a literary creation.","brand":"Touchstone","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47142602342640,"sku":"9781439123799","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781439123799_p0.jpg?v=1769903885","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781439123799","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}