Drama Books - Page 5

Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Golden Gate to Shakespeare 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Bravo to the writers, editors, and publishers of the entire No Fear Shakespeare series. Rendering Shakespeare into prosaic, colloquial American English not only explains what Shakespeare was saying, but reveals how much better he said it! Here's a few examples from HAMLET:

Hamlet sees the Ghost, but his mother doesn't. In modern lingo, she says, "This is only a figment of your imagination." That's a cliche. In the original, she says, "This is the very coinage of your brain." That's vivid.

Rosencrantz tells Hamlet in modern lingo, "You're not doing yourself any good by refusing to tell your friends what's bothering you." Sounds like a reprimand. The original line sounds like a threat: "You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend."

Hamlet remembers his mother's relationship with his father: "She would hang on to him, and the more she was with him the more she wanted to be with him; she couldn't get enough of him." Sounds good, but the original sounds disturbing: "Why, she would hang on him / As if increase of appetitite had grown / By what it fed on . . ." Change the word "she" to "it" and you have the image of a parasite. That alone says a lot about Hamlet's view of women and sex.

I know of no better guide to reading, understanding, and appreciating Shakespeare than Spark Notes' No Fear Shakespeare series.

Editorial Review:

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Hamlet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.

 

Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

The Crucible (Penguin Classics)

Arthur Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Devil is Precise 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

On my walk through the LoA edition of Arthur Miller plays I bypass The Enemy of the People, the Ibsen adaptation, which I think is a waste of everyone's time, and go straight to the Crucible, which I had never read, nor watched on stage or screen. Very odd. It is a truly gripping piece of modern classic stage writing.
Of course AM needed to educate us always, so this story is not just a story about the witch trials of Salem, when perfectly harmless people, including some citizens of standing in the community, got identified as witches and hanged for it. (Which somehow looks like progress over the burnings in Europe.)
No, this is generally about fundamentalism and totalitarianism and theocracy, and more specifically about McCarthy and I wouldn't be surprised if it was also about the Ayatollah Khomeini, whatever you may say regarding anachronisms, and the Taliban. Let's not forget the Cultural Revolution of China.
If I seem to mock the play just a little bit, I haven't made up my mind yet, not quite. There is something strangely wrong in the tone of the dialogues. Can't quite nail it. Anachronistic for sure; is that all? Have to think about it.
The message that AM put into his morality tale is that power and property interests are behind the maddest manifestations of disinterestedness and righteousness. That was sure true in the other historical witch hunts that we know about. Whether it is an accurate reflection of the Salem case, I do not know. (I will definitely look for the DVD and give DDL a chance for redemption in my eyes.)

Editorial Review:

Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism.

Introduction by Christopher Bigsby

Anna Karenina

Helen Edmundson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 238 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Please enter a title for your review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Half the content is elaborate banal detail used to establish context, but in it's more consequential moments this novel is the final word on the disingenuous nature of institutionalized aspects of social behaviour. It's a theme I've pondered and seen touched on in a few other books, but I was blown away by how comprehensively Tolstoy articulates and extrapolates my own thoughts.
This novel is primarily a work of philosophy, using the characters to illustrate social observations at the expense of a fully cohesive narrative.
It's difficult to understand how fans of classic fiction, who generally consider "reading" a neccessity for respectable people, don't take offense to this book as it seems to be constantly critcizing that kind of cultural pretense.
Another interesting thing I got from the book is how culture 100+ years ago doesn't seem as formal and conservative as I had previously been led to believe. Parents were already complaining about tradition falling out of favor among the younger generation and governmental red-tape was already something criticized as getting in the way of practical goals. On the other hand the doctors of the era are presented as having no medical knowledge whatsoever.
my fave quote:
"The word talent, which they understood to mean an innate and almost physical capacity, independent of mind and heart, and which was their term for everything an artist lives through, occurred very often in their conversation, since they required it as a name for something which they did not at all understand, but about which they wanted to talk."

Editorial Review:

Translated by Constance Garnett, Introduction by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova

Fantastic MR Fox (French's Acting Edition)

David Wood

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

little too violent 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 8 people found this review helpful.

when the young foxes fearfully ask their daddy, the fantastic mr fox, how will we die? will there be dogs? I decided it was not for my 3 year olds. he's clever allright but this is probably a tale best told ( edited by you) and not read.

It is my favorite book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am 9 years old and enjoyed this book. I especially like how it is written and the story line. It is full of fantastic mystery all the way up until the last sentence. There ae three adults who are trying to kill a fox who is eating some of the food from their farms. The adventure is all about Mr. Fox trying to get away from the farmers and still trying to feed his family and friends. It was fun to live the life of each character from the adults to the foxes, moles, rabbits and all the other animals. If you like mystery and adventure you will love this book.

Editorial Review:

When Mr Fox steals one chicken too many from a local farm, the farmers' decide the only cure is to rid themselves of Mr Fox by any means possible. Outwitted at every turn, the farmers' ploys backfire, and all the animals celebrate a feast at their expense.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Bloom's Guides)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 202 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Rat Race Lost, State of Denial 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Hopeless fathers & sons were a favorite theme of Miller. The pressure of failing aspirations. The horror of failure. Drawn between overconfidence and self-doubt. Flashbacks on scenes from a dreary life. Lies to others and oneself. Failures in job and family.
The play is one of the quintessential pieces of modern American theater. Its themes are known and have been expounded endlessly. Why is it still fresh? I have never watched it on stage nor screen. I have known it for ages, but could not find enough interest to look for a performance, nor to read it. Now LoA does it.
Looking at the reviews here on the Penguin modern classic page, I am wondering about the spread in reviews. From 5 to 1 stars all is there, with a downward slope towards the negative votes. The play has more friends than foes, but on an absolute level, the nays would sink an ordinary ship. Of course quality questions are not decided by democracy. One particularly daft observer produced a perfect inverted version of cultural Stalinism. With perfect perverted logic, he tells us that only positive depictions of the American dream are acceptable. That is completely in line with 'socialist realism': if the artist fails to enthuse about the reigning system, he is condemned.
Thanks to LoA for making me get to know the man Miller. I will definitely look for a movie version or go to a play if I find an opportunity.

Editorial Review:

- Comprehensive reading and study guides for some of the world's most important literary masterpieces - Concise critical excerpts provide a scholarly overview of each work - "The Story Behind the Story" details the conditions under which the work was written - Each book includes a biographical sketch of the author, a descriptive list of characters, an extensive summary and analysis, and an annotated bibliography

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Tom Stoppard

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A grand aimlessness 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I first saw this as a film. It was so good that I bought the VHS version.

The characters' existential wonderings are a bit of a smack in the face. And yet, there is a certain laughing at the darkness. Call it whisteling past the graveyard.

We all know the end, but we argue against it until is it upon us. And even then. And that is what it is. In the end, aren't we all supporting characters in someone else's play?

And we all call for some direction....

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is the fabulously inventive tale of "Hamlet" as told from the worm's-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare's play. In Tom Stoppard's best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of "Waiting for Godot" resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

Heart of Darkness (Ultimate Classics)

Joseph Conrad, Richard Thomas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 385 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very, Very Short and Unremarkable 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Like most people, I was familiar with Heart of Darkness, both as an acclaimed work of literature and as the inspiration for the remarkable movie Apocolypse Now. For some reason, I recently decided to make an attempt at reading it, despite my concern that it was written at a level beyond my capacity to understand.

Upon receipt of the volume from Amazon, I was initially under the impression that I had mistakenly ordered the Cliff's Notes version of the work. I had no idea that the book was essentially a short story, easily readable in 2-3 hours.

Even more surprising, was the ease with which I was able to follow and understand the story, though admittedly written in a slightly dense prose. Perhaps this was due to having seen Apocolypse Now and being familiar with the broad outline of the story and having read other works of history on the Belgian Congo.

In any event, it was a decent story, filled with some beautifully descriptive language and imagery. I must say, however, that I was not bowled over. Steamship Captain pilots a ragged boat up the Congo, accompanied by colonial agents and support staff (cannibals and other natives) in an attempt to relieve a long stranded station agent (Kurtz) who has "gone native" and become the insane source of worship for the local natives. If you've seen Apocolypse Now, you know the story, just replace the Mekong with the Congo.

I go back to my first paragraph in which I related a concern over my ability to understand what is considered a classic work of literature. I fully understood it, but was perhaps not qualified to fully appreciate it.

Editorial Review:

Conrad's classic work tells of the conflicting drives of two men who finally come to grips with their differences--and their similarities. 2 cassettes.

Inferno (Modern Library Classics)

Dante

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A powerful translation of a masterpiece 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

There have been several excellent translations of Dante in the past few years, all worth reading in their own right. But I retain a special affection for John Ciardi's version, as it's the first one I ever read, at the unprepared & overwhelmed age of 15. I knew of its reputation as a major classic & I was ignorant enough to be unfazed by the prospect of reading it.

Well, to say that I was soon in over my head is an understatement! But Ciardi's fine, lyrical translation, as well as his extensive but always clear notes, enabled me to go on without drowning. And what a journey it was! At the time, I was simply dazzled by the invention & imagery of the work; now that I'm older, I can appreciate its many psychological & spiritual levels. Both the capstone of the Middle Ages & the gateway to the Renaissance, Dante's masterpiece is a stunning exploration of the religious & political world of its time. A lifetime of knowledge went into its creation, and every intricately woven thread of poetry shines like gold, without ever becoming pedantic.

Whether you accept or reject a literal belief in God & Hell, the poem remains an astonishing revelation of & descent into the human psyche, the heart of darkness. Dante's insight that the damned have ultimately chosen their fate remains psychologically true today ... how many people trapped in the private hells of their own lives have placed themselves there, bemoaning their fate while unable to find the courage or strength to escape it?

But that's merely one level of meaning in this magnificent work. A visionary epic of learning, of faith, of poetry, it becomes deeper & richer with every new reading. If you don't know the original language, the next best thing is to read as many translations as possible -- and I still recommend Ciardi's as one of the best. This is an illumination of Hell that can't dim or fade with the years -- most highly recommended!

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking bilingual edition of Dante’s masterpiece that includes a substantive Introduction, extensive notes, and appendixes that reproduce Dante’s key sources and influences.

The Haunting of Hill House: A Drama of Suspense in Three Acts

Shirley Jackson, F. Andrew Leslie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 328 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

One of her best 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If you are not familiar with Shirley Jackson, or if you have only read her short story "The Lottery," the "Haunting of Hill House" is an excellent place to start. Much like "The Lottery," this novel brings you down a compellingly windy path that leads to a shockingly twisted conclusion. Her descriptions of the actual hauntings are chilling and will have you turning on all the lights in your house and checking behind the doors. Jackson's characters, in particular the main character, are written with an attention to detail and you will quickly find yourself absorbed into their fate. A quick warning to fans of the latest "The Haunting" movie: the novel does not contain nearly the same amount of gore or simple answers. Jackson's novel is more a psychological horror that will leave you questioning. For further reading, my personal favorite is "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and "The Sundial."

Editorial Review:

The four visitors at Hill House-- some there for knowledge, others for adventure-- are unaware that the old mansion will soon choose one of them to make its own.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Alex Haley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 171 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A beloved book marred by flaws 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I love Roots and think the whole world should read it. It's an important and vital book about American history, family history, and triumph over hardship. I loved Roots the first time I read it twenty years ago, and I love it still, having just finished it yesterday, BUT...

1) If only Alex Haley hadn't plagiarized whole sections of the book (see Wikipedia's article on the author Harold Courlander)

2) If only Haley really HAD been related to Kunta Kinte (genealogists state he consciously perpetrated a hoax)

3) If only Juffure really WAS Haley's ancestral village (evidence suggests that the griot from modern Juffure with "memories" of Kunta Kinte's disappearance in 1767 was coached about what to "remember")

I found these fabrications depressing. And what's so sad is that I believe Haley had no need to lie and cheat, because he's really a top-notch storyteller.

This aside, though, I have a few other critical comments.

1) The book begins a slow descent into petering out after Kunta Kinte exits. The characters become increasingly wooden and one-dimensional. Kunta is great, Kizzy is good, Chicken George is fair, and everyone and almost everything after that is forgettable.

2) The book lauds having tons of children, mindlessly, and fails to criticize parents who have children and cannot provide for them. Haley makes it seem that having children and passing on the family name, no matter what horror the child risks getting subjected to, is the noblest of goals. I disagree! It sounds crass to say that slaves shouldn't have had children, but I hold all parents, slaves or not (rape victims being an exception), responsible when they knowingly bring children into a world of hell. (And Chicken George - a neglectful parent, to say the least - bringing 8 children into slavery? Nothing admirable there!)

Editorial Review:

This monumental Pulitzer Prize-winning saga and iconic bestseller is available for the first time on audio. Roots begins with a birth in an African village in 1750, and ends two centuries later at a funeral in Arkansas. In that time span, an unforgettable cast of men, women, and children come to life, many of them based on the people from Alex Haley's own family tree.

Presented abridged on 12 CDs.