The publication of El Tragaluz in 1967 coincided with a slight relaxation in the political censorship in Spain, and therefore could deal directly with a situation arising directly from the Civil War and its aftermath. Buero Vallejo portrays the blighted lives of the family on the 'losing side' in a dark basement flat lit only by the pavement level window of the title - the father driven mad by the death of his baby daughter from starvation immediately after the war; two brothers who react in contrasting ways to their family circumstances and the social changes of post-war Spain. Buero, however, transcends the specific setting by having his audience view the action by having his audience view the action through the eyes of two researchers from a future generation, as if it were a reconstruction of events from a very remote past. Far reaching moral question are posed about active versus contemplative response to life and the importance of the individual in history.

El Tragaluz has an important place in Buero's theatre incorporating earlier metaphysical preoccupations, with a later historical and political dimension into an overriding vision of national reconciliation after the traumas of Civil War, and beyond that a world evolving toward the triumph over human egoism.

This play is part of a series is designed to meet the needs of the fast-growing A Level and undergraduate market for texts in the Spanish language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context.