الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
J. B. Priestley (1894–1984) is a novelist, dramatist, essayist and
literary critic. His dramatic career began in 1932 with Dangerous Corner
(Brome 136). In J.B. Priestley De Vitis and Kalson say ”Priestley the
dramatist is a unique figure.... from Bernard Shaw to John Osborne British
drama is a waste land. It is Priestley, the solitary Englishman, who bridges
the gap, along with Sean O’Casey the Irishman and James Bridie the Scot. In
the 1940s only these three could be named in one breath as dramatists of
distinction and serious intent actively engaged in expanding the theater’s
horizons, with Priestley by far the most prolific” (116). Matthew Norgate
argues that Priestley’s writings opened fire on the predominant ”trivial’’
literature of the 1940s: ”At this time the emphasis was on the trivial, and
even so business was not good.... Priestley had opened fire with the first
attempt to restore serious drama with his Music at Night” (28).
Priestley’s plays may be divided into two main types, the time plays
and the social plays. In the time plays he is mainly concerned with the theme
of time. This type centers on Time and the Conways (1937) and I Have
Been Here Before (1937) (Ward Longman Companion of 20th Century
Literature 1001). In the second type, ”the serious plays” as Ward calls them
in his Twentieth -Century Literature (139), Priestley reveals a great interest
in the relationship between man and the community. In these plays he writes
about man’s responsibility for his fellowmen and his commitment to the
community. These plays include People at Sea (1937), They Came to a City
(1943), An Inspector Calls (1945), Summer Day’s Dream (1949) and Home
is Tomorrow (1950).