Although the scene of the comedy is laid in Paris, all the
characters are Swedish, which may be accounted for by the fact that
the feminist movement, of which "Comrades" is a delicious, stinging
satire, had been more agitated at that time in Scandinavia than
elsewhere. That Paris was chosen as a background for this group of
young artists and writers was probably reminiscent of the time, the
early eighties, when Strindberg with his wife and children left
Sweden and, after spending some time with a colony of artists not
far from Fontainebleau, came to Paris, where there were many
friends of other days, and established themselves in that "sad,
silent Passy," as Strindberg's own chronicle of those times reads.
There he took his walks in the deserted arcades of the empty
Trocadero Palace, back of which he lived; went to the Theatre
Francais, where he saw the great success of the day, and was
startled that "an undramatic bagatelle with threadbare scenery,
stale intrigues and superannuated theatrical tricks, could be
playing on the foremost stage of the world;" saw at the Palais de
l'Industrie the triennial exhibition of art works, "the creme de la
creme of three salons, and found not one work of consequence."
After some time he came to the conclusion that "the big city is not
the heart that drives the pulses," but that it is "the boil that
corrupts and poisons," and so betook himself and his family to
Switzerland, where they lived in the vicinity of Lake Leman, which
environment was made use of years later in the moving one-act play,
"Facing Death," presented herewith.

"Pariah," the other one-act play appearing in this volume, is the
generally recognized masterpiece of all the short one-act plays.
The dialogue is so concentrated that it seems as if not one line
could be cut without the whole structure falling to pieces, and in