A Streetcar Named Desire (New Directions Paperbook) - Softcover

Williams, Tennessee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811216020 ISBN 13: 9780811216029

Publisher: New Directions, 2004

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award winning play―reissued with an introduction by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams' essay "The World I Live In."

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared―57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the '40s and '50s.

Who better than America's elder statesman of the theater, Williams' contemporary Arthur Miller, to write as a witness to the lightning that struck American culture in the form of A Streetcar Named Desire? Miller's rich perspective on Williams' singular style of poetic dialogue, sensitive characters, and dramatic violence makes this a unique and valuable new edition of A Streetcar Named Desire. This definitive new edition will also include Williams' essay "The World I Live In," and a brief chronology of the author's life.

About this title

About the Author:

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) is the acclaimed author of many books of letters, short stories, poems, essays, and a large collection of plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real,Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana, and The Rose Tattoo.

From AudioFile:

To listen to this riveting performance, recorded live at Lincoln Center in 1973, is a revelation. It takes the listener right to the heart of what makes Tennessee Williams's 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play a literary icon--the words, every last word. From the lilting sounds of Blanche DuBois's fragile and flighty poetic visions to the staccato tones of Stanley Kowalski's streetwise poker games, the performances weave image after image. There are few histrionics in Rosemary Harris, James Farentino, and Patricia Conolly's naturalistic portrayals of Blanche, Stanley, and Stella. Their vocal choices make the play's final scenes sound all the more credible, and devastating. A classic performance of an American classic. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0811216020
• ISBN 13: 9780811216029
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224