Alexandre Dumas figlio, La signora delle Camelie. Traduzione, nota al testo, introduzione e postfazione di Marisa Verna. Introduzione e postfazione tradotti in lingua inglese

The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas fils Marisa Verna ed., Edizioni ETS, Pisa 2011 The drame à thèse by Dumas fils appears as a form of intelligent theatre, proposing moral reflections in at times explicit opposition against the vaudeville and the pure divertissement. Besides a new translation of the drama and of the preface by Dumas fils (previously published by EduCatt in 2008 for teaching purposes), the volume contains an introductory chapter which investigates the mythopoeic force and the canonicity of the text within the European and non-European cultures. The introductory essay aims at highlighting the intrinsic duality of the text which has originated the myth: of the two dramatic structures which make up the pièce the neo-romantic and the bourgeois one the former prevailed in the years and centuries following its creation, contrary even to any prediction of the author himself. The concluding essay analyzes two performances, in France and in Italy, acknowledged as crucial for the dramaturgical history of the text (since the staging history of this drama is immense, the analysis concerns one coeval performance and one from the 20th century). The essay is followed by a brief digression on the international staging success of the pièce and by a selected bibliography.