Christopher Hampton Books

Set against the backdrop of the declining French aristocracy before the Revolution, the narrative explores themes of decadence and sexual cynicism. Through its vivid portrayal of the elite class's excesses, the book critiques the moral and social decay of the time, offering a compelling glimpse into a world on the brink of change. The work reflects the tensions of an era marked by opulence and impending upheaval, capturing the complexities of human behavior within a decaying social structure.

Friend to film stars, spies, models, government ministers and aristocrats, Profumo Scandal rise and ultimate disgrace coincided with the increasingly permissive lifestyle of London's elite in the early 1960s. This book charts the rise and fall from grace of the man at the centre of the Profumo Scandal.

French billionaire Orgon, relocated to Los Angeles with his family, has fallen under the spell of Tartuffe, a radical American evangelist. So comprehensively is he hoodwinked that Tartuffe looks set to steal his fortune, drive away his son, seduce his wife and marry his daughter. Molière's classic comedy, adapted by Christopher Hampton and directed by the former dramaturg of the French People's National Theatre, Gérald Garutti, premiered in May 2018, the West End's first dual language theatre production. This is a bilingual edition of the text.

Play produced by the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1985 based on the Laclos novel.

Christopher Hampton's play is drawn from the testimony Pomsel gave when she finally broke her silence shortly before she died to a group of Austrian filmmakers, and from their documentary A German Life (Christian Kroenes, Olaf Muller, Roland Schrotthofer and Florian Weigensamer, produced by Blackbox Film & Media Productions).

Set against the backdrop of a wealthy family estate in 1935, the narrative follows 13-year-old Briony Tallis, who misinterprets a moment between her sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of their housekeeper. Driven by jealousy and her vivid imagination, Briony falsely accuses Robbie of a crime, leading to devastating consequences for all involved. As the story unfolds over several decades, themes of love, guilt, and the impact of a single moment resonate deeply, altering the lives of Briony, Cecilia, and Robbie forever.

The old man started to talk about the trial. He blamed everyone involved, including the teacher, i.e. me. In his view the root cause of the problem was that everybody involved - teachers, parents, boys - behaved as if God no longer existed. A schoolteacher is denounced and accused of 'sabotage of the Fatherland' when he reprimands a student for making a racist remark. The class petition against him. A murder follows. During the trial, the teacher decides to risk everything by telling the truth. Published in 1937, Jugend Ohne Gott is the penultimate novel by Ödön von Horváth. It was judged by Thomas Mann to be the best novel of recent years. This powerful evocation of everyday life in the shadow of fascism also garnered praise from Hermann Hesse, Franz Werfel and Joseph Roth, who called Horváth 'the most clear-sighted chronicler of his age'. Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Youth Without God was commissioned by and performed in Vienna at the Theater in der Josefstadt in 2009. On its tenth anniversary, the play receives its UK premiere at The Coronet Theatre, London.

This first collection of Hampton's work includes The Philanthropist, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1970 and went on to become one of the Court's longest-running West End transfers.

Ibsen's provocative play about truth in a society driven by power and money, given a startling contemporary spin in Thomas Ostermeier and Florian Borchmeyer's acclaimed version, here in an English translation by Duncan Macmillan.

Taking you on a tour of the sun-soaked boulevards of 1940s Los Angeles, this book serves to open up a neglected chapter of American cultural history, as the European emigres find themselves amidst the materialistic razzle-dazzle of Hollywood.