Pirandello's second "masterpiece," Henry IV (1922), is another examination of human role-playing and the subtle differences between art and rife, madness and sanity. An accident leaves a man thinking for years that he is the German Emperor Henry IV. One day in private the man regains his sanity but decides to continue playing the role of Emperor and is finally trapped in his assumed identity.

Pirandello's Right You Are (If You Think So) (1917) has been called by many, including Eric Bentley, the "quintessential Pirandello." The situation in the story is told in three conflicting versions and the audience can never know which one to accept as true.

Many of Pirandello's novels elaborate on themes developed in the major plays. In The Late Mattia Pascal (1904) the hero permits himself to be thought dead and assumes a false identity to escape his past...