A first volume of translations, from 1960, uniform with the second, though the large 7 between the author's eyes appears in red instead of green - beware of online booksellers who confuse the two! Comprising the following plays: The Women at the Tomb; Barabbas; Three Actors and their Drama; Pantagleize; The Blind Men; Chronicles of Hell; Lord Halewynn

The plays are illuminated by extracts from The Ostend Interviews a long series of radio interviews with the author, and the translations, by George Hauger, are lively and readable. Key influences are Poe and Jarry: These are absurdist Gothic pantomimes, often based on biblical sources, but their black humour and grotesquery is universal and should appeal to broad minded readers of all faiths and of none. A particular highlight is the barnstorming 'Chronicles of Hell', which shocked post-war Paris. Don't be put off by the dramatic format, the texts are short and punchy and work well on the page, though you will be left wanting to see them in performance. Ghelderode is a treasure of European fantastic writing, largely unknown to the English speaking world. Adventurous collectors should snap these volumes up while they are still relatively inexpensive. ( )

Lush, medieval, sickly ripe with imagery of folk-Catholicism, blood, plague and haunted by death, cruelty and despair. Ghelderode is cast in with Beckett and Ionesco as an "absurdist" - but he also brings to mind the works of Huysmans, Rodenbach, Holbein, Rops and the grotesquerie of the kermesse.