Conrad’s Drama

John G. Peters, a University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas, has published widely on Conrad, including Conrad and Impressionism (2001), The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad (2007), and Joseph Conrad’s Critical Reception (2013).

"To say that for Conradians Peterson's [sic] edition will be an essential source in their investigation of Conrad’s oeuvre seems an obvious compliment, but it will also be an invaluable tool in the hands of theatre historians and theoreticians, a precious guide to the twentieth-century tensions and discussions on art, aesthetics and sense of humour, as well as on politics. This book makes its readers ponder why Conrad’s plays were appreciated in the States and disregarded in Germany, why the context so vivid to the recalled critics disappears from the contemporality of twenty-first-century perspective, and why the interpretation of the female characters in Conrad’s plays differs so drastically between reviews—ranging from omission and neglect to placing them at the heart of the drama." - Anna M. Szczepan-Wojnarska, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Poland, in Yearbook of Conrad Studies Vol. 14, 2019 pp. 123–124"John G. Peters has done a brilliant job in collating the reviews and observations of Conrad’s drama, exploring their reception both as works on the page and on the stage. The fact that the volume is over 450 pages long makes us realise how important this ‘obscure’ aspect of Conrad’s oeuvre truly is." - Richard J. Hand, The Conradian, 2021"John Peters has meticulously assembled a collection of reviews and observations on Joseph Conrad’s contributions to theatre that will be welcome to scholars and students undertaking investigations in this area and may also deserve the attention of those who contemplate developments and trends in criticism. [...] It is reasonable to expect that Peters’s Conrad’s Drama: Contemporary Reviews and Observations will make a comparable impression on those who use it in the coming years. […] Peters deserves thanks for making the reviews, especially the best of them, readily available in a single volume." - Michael John DiSanto, Joseph Conrad Today, Fall 2021“...the majority of the notes attest to the impeccable scholarship of Peters and open a window for the readers through which they can observe and fully understand the theatrical, literary, and critical contexts of Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.[…] this work of extensive criticism and advanced scholarship should be essential reading for any student of Conrad’s drama or early twentieth-century British drama, which every university library should include in their reference section. Most importantly, Peters’s handbook definitely proves that Conrad’s plays should not be put to rest in Davy Jones’s Locker; quite the opposite, it gives food for thought and material for further study.- Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech, Conradiana, Spring/Fall 2019, col. 51, no 1/2.