About The Book

Professor Leopold Nettles, the “hero” of Largo Desolato, is the author of a book that contains a troublesome paragraph laying him open to arrest on charges of “disturbing the intellectual peace.” Pressed by the government to recant, Nettles is tortured—by internal demons as well as external ones. Vaclav Havel has created a vivid and terrifying portrait of the writer in the totalitarian state that is as real and immediate as today’s headlines.

Praise

“Largo Desolato in Tom Stoppard’s version emerges as a wonderfully comic and unself-pitying piece. . . . The brilliance of the piece is that it extends beyond its own country to the civil rights public at large . . . it takes a comic writer of genius to make something funny out of that.” —Irving Wardle, The Times (London)

“One of the most marvelous pieces of theater I have seen in recent years.” —Wallace Shawn

“A funny play that tells the truth.” —Dan Sullivan, Los Angeles Times

“It is unlikely that we shall see a better play this year. Inconceivable that we shall see on which is more important.” —Edward Pearce, Daily Telegraph (London)