Translated by Patrick Healy

Karl Kraus’s The Last Days of Mankind (1920) is one of the most ambitious works of twentieth-century literature: a monumental five-act “tragedy” with prologue and epilogue, populated by nearly five hundred characters and stretching over two hundred scenes. Conceived “for a theatre on Mars,” it remains the most scathing dramatic response to the First World War, blending documentary fragments, satire, and grotesque parody into an unrelenting portrait of a society undone by propaganda, press hysteria, and political opportunism.

Patrick Healy’s translation is the first complete version of the play rendered into English by a single translator. Widely praised in the press, The Irish Times described it as conveying “the communal bewilderment and rage in a dazzling vernacular … it sizzles and flares.” His version became the basis for an acclaimed staging in Leith, with starring roles for avant-garde band The Tiger Lillies, bringing Kraus’s vision to the stage with startling immediacy.

The Last Days of Mankind is more than a historical document: it is a devastating vision of how language can be corrupted, and a warning for every age facing war and mass manipulation. This definitive edition includes an introduction, glossary, and further reading.