<DIV><P>This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Coward and the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley, Coward's first biographer. </P><P><I>Hay Fever</I>, a comedy of bad manners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who have all been invited independently for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. <I>The Vortex </I>was a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction onto the stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned. <I>Fallen Angels</I>, which is written for two star actresses was described as 'degenerate', 'vile', 'obscene', 'shocking' - the second half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologue between the two women. <I>Easy Virtue</I> is an elegant, laconic tribute to a lost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directly to the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentally hypocritical 20s society. </P><P> </P></DIV>