A work that ties together a number of playwrights from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries in what the author refers to as "the theatre of revolt". He discusses each of these playwrights and the ways in which they rebel against modernity, religion, philosophy, society, the lack of religion, and much else. There is much in here that contradicts other scholars on some of these playwrights, especially Ibsen, but it is thought-provoking, even if some of it is hard to agree with. The book does suffer from too much assumption that these playwrights must have been particularly insightful in seeing everything the way they did, and that their philosophies were valid. Some of them probably are, but there were many questionable things in their writing, also. There is also the problem that at times the author makes a statement that sounds like a value judgment but may be merely a statement about what a particular writer believed, but it is impossible to tell when it is Brustein's opinion or, say, Strindberg's. It also suffers from assumptions that seemed to many to be valid in 1964, but have now been discovered to be scientifically inaccurate - in other words, some of the things presented in this book did not wear well. It would also be nice to find a theatre critic, any one of the writers of this time, who did not just dismiss Arthur Miller and Willy Loman. Overall, a worthwhile book, but one that shows the signs of its time. ( )