Plays of W. B. Yeats

SYLVIA C. ELLIS teaches English at the University of Wales, Bangor, North Wales. She has also taught English literature in Paris and Moscow and English, maths and science in New York. Having travelled widely and studied several languages, she now lives in Bangor and strives to improve her Welsh

'Yeats's passionate interest in the figure of the dancer has long fascinated his critics and admirers. Sylvia Ellis brings to the subject particular expertise as an historian of dance, and she takes us in new and unexpected directions. Her book is by far the most comprehensive treatment that we have.' - John Stokes, King's College, University of London 'Admirers of W. B. Yeats and especially his plays for dancers have long known of his interest in dance both as art-form and subject of fin-de-siecle aesthetic debate. But only with Dr Ellis has a scholar emerged willing to undertake the comprehensive research and sustained commitment to explore this intriguing topic fully.' - W. M. Tydeman, University of Wales, Bangor '...[an] admirable book... it is a clarifying approach to Yeats's plays which gives them theatrical integrity, with no apologetic deference either to his poems or to the naturalistic theatrical tradition. It is an unignorable introduction to Yeats's multi-medium drama.' - Bernard O'Donoghue, Times Literary Supplement

• List of Plates Preface Acknowledgements Introduction The Figure of the Dancer: Salome Japan, Japonisme and Japonaiserie The Dancer in Performance Dialogue into Dance: The Plays of Yeats Conclusion Bibliography Index