Les Parents terribles

French. Tight, square, uncreased spine. Former owner name and notes to the first blank leaf, but interior is else clean and unmarked. Pages are toned. Some light edge-wear. A quarter -inch tear to the back cover at the fore-edge foot. Wonderful author-created cover to this Gallimard Livre de poche, with expressive lettering and papercut profiles to both front and back, forming a suggestion of symmetry divided by the spine: one mask employing slightly softer lines (Thalia) and the other more angular (Melpomene). According to Cocteau, Les Parents terribles is an exercise in balancing conflicting tones; his intent was to generate tragedic resonance in a setting that frequently borders on vaudevillian. The play's initial run was halted when public outrage rose in reaction to plans to hold a free production for schoolchildren, and three years later, during the French occupation, a revival was interrupted by the throwing of tear-gas bombs and the release of rats into the theater. Cocteau later adapted the script into a 1948 film which frequently utilizes forceful close-ups, a technique the writer/director relished in contrast to the distancing constraints of the stage, saying, 'I wanted to put my eye to the keyhole and surprise [the actors] with a telescopic lens.' 180 pp.