
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard · 1966
Two minor characters from Hamlet stumble through the wings of Shakespeare's play, trying to figure out what's going on. Stoppard wrote it at twenty-eight and reinvented theatrical metafiction. It's Waiting for Godot crossed with Hamlet, and the combination is both hilarious and genuinely philosophical.
Drama · the Pro canon
The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.