It was not until 1948 that Eugène Ionesco finally wrote his first play. Having decided at the age of 40 that he ought to learn English, Ionesco acquired an English primer and set to work, conscientiously copying whole sentences from the text for the purpose of memorizing them. Rereading them, he did not learn English as he had intended, but rather became aware of some astonishing truths—that, for example, there are seven days in the week, something he already knew; that the floor is down, the ceiling up, things he already knew as well, perhaps, but that he had never seriously thought about or had forgotten, and that seemed to him, suddenly, as stupefying as they were indisputably true.