A brilliantly perceptive study of the most ambiguous and perpetually fascinating figure of the twentieth century European theatre' (Kenneth Tynan) Brecht's influence on the theatre may well be as powerful as Kafka's influence on the novel and this study of Brecht's life and work was unanimously well received when first published just after the writer's death in 1959. This book portrays the paradox of a man whose work was admired on the Western side of the Iron Curtain despite ideological differences whilst in the East his artistic output was criticised but his communist ideas were welcomed. This authoritative text has stood the test of time.