From the silent classic Pandora's Box to Metallica and Lou Reed's 2011 collabora
tion to a 2013 graphic novel adaption, the Lulu playscontinue to inspire discuss
ion Two of Wedekind's most seminal plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box both fo
cus on the actions of the young heroine Lulu, who embodies both animal sensualit
y and waif-like innocence, as she escapes a life on the streets, receives a soci
ety education, marries, takes on various lovers, becomes a dancer in a revue, is
imprisoned for murder, and encounters Jack the Ripper. When Earth Spirit was pr
emiered Leipzig in 1898, Wedekind was vilified and persecuted for advocating unf
eigned sexual pleasure and making his heroine a heartless whore. Death and Devil
and Castle Wetterstein, the other plays that make up this volume, are essential
ly extensions of and complementary to the Lulu tragedies.
