First Published in 1998. 'The Trap' forms part of the Polish Theatre Archive- a series of books edited by Daniel Gerould, Graduate School, City University of New York. The Polish Theatre Archive makes available in English translation major works of Poland's dramatic literature as well as monographs and critical studies -on Polish playwrights, theatre artists and stage history. Although emphasis is placed on the contemporary period, the Polish Theatre Archive also encompasses the nineteenth-century roots of modern theatre practice in Romanticism and Symbolism. The individual plays will contain authoritative introductions that place the works in their historical and theatrical contexts.

In his remand cell, a small-time petty criminal surrenders himself to the sadistic fantasties of hatred, rage and despair that are trapped inside him. This terrifying, claustrophobic descent into the isolated mind of a man locked away from society becomes, in Selby's compassionate literary tour de force, a challeging vision of a world deprived of love. The blistering follow-up to Selby's best-selling cult classic Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Room still has the power to provoke, to chill and to disturb

This book is not for the general reader, but written in a direct, personal manner, should also interest those who are not specialists in the subjects discussed. Covering 200 pages, the essays are predominantly concerned with modern Polish and modern English language poetry, with problems of translating poetry, and with the relationship between poetry and philosophy. There is also some material dealing with music, the visual arts and religious belief. Discussions cover the poetry of Norwid, Ro ewicz, Szymborska, Herbert, Emily Dickinson, Gerald Manley Hopkins and TS Eliot, the philosophy of Heraclitus, St Anselm and Roman Ingarden, and the paintings of Vermeer and Edward Hopper.