I have seen two of this collection's 6 plays done in London, "London Assurance" and "The Shaughraun." I found these plays to still be very fresh after 110+ years. But the inclusion of just one play rates this book a 5, in my opinion. "The Shaughraun" is not just the best Irish play I have seen, but one of the best plays I saw in London during a 4 year period in the 1980's. The playwright wrote this play for himself to play the title character back in the 1870's, but roguish Con can still be entertain audiences and readers today. But it is not just Con the Shaughraun that makes the play so entertaining, but also the ensemble of characters that inhabit the play. I was lucky to see this play done in a truly wonderful manner by the National Theatre, on three separate occasions, with Steven Rea taking the title role and making it his own. The dialogue between the characters, with many asides, kept me laughing through the whole play. If I found this play was being performed somewhere in the U.S or UK and I had the time, I would travel to see it again and again. Anyone having the opportunity to see, or even mount a production of this play should do so.