This volume contains four of Pix r court's most important melodramas: The Ruins of Babylon, or Jafar and Zaida; The Dog of Montargis, or The Forest of Bondy;
Christopher Columbus, or the Discovery of the New World; and Alice, or The Scottish Gravediggers. Also included is Charles Nodier 's introduction to the 1843 Collected Edition of Pix r court's plays and two theoretical essays by the playwright, "Melodrama," and "Final Reflections on Melodrama."