Product Description

The story of Blanche DuBois and her last grasp at happiness, and of Stanley Kowalski, the one who destroyed her chance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15499 in Books
• Published on: 1986-08-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
Play in three acts by Tennessee Williams, first produced and published in 1947 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama for that year. One of the most admired plays of its time, it concerns the mental and moral disintegration and ultimate ruin of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle. Her neurotic, genteel pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About the Author
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), one of the 20th century's most superb writers, was also one of its most successful and prolific. New Directions publishes Williams' letters, short stories, poems, fiction, and over fifty of his plays including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth, Night of the Iguana, Orpheus Descending, and The Rose Tattoo. Arthur Miller, author of the plays Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and Broken Glass, is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, and an Obie.

Customer Reviews

Williams's Intense Desire
Tennessee Williams's masterfully written drama explores the extremes of fantasy versus reality, the Old South versus the New South, and primitive desire versus civilized restraint. Its meager 142 page spine is no indication of the complexity and significance that Williams achieves in his remarkable work. A strong aspect of the play is Williams's amazingly vivid portrayal of desperate and forsaken characters who symbolize and presumably resolve his battles between extremes. He created and immortal woman in the character of Blanche DuBois, the haggard and fragile southern beauty whose pathetic last grasp at happiness is cruelly destroyed. She represents fantasy for her many outrageous attempts to elude herself, and she likewise represents the Old South with only her manners and pretentions remaining after the foreclosure of her family's estate. The movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire shot Marlon Brando to fame as Stanley Kowalski, a sweat-shirted barbarian and crudely sensual brother-in-law who precipitated Blanche's tragedy. He symbolizes unrestrained desire with the recurring animal motif that follows him throughout the play. A third major character, Stella Kowalski, acts as mediator between her constantly conflicting husband and older sister. She magnifies the New South in her renounce of the Old pretentions by marrying a blue collar immigrant. Conflicts between these and other vividly colorful characters always in light of the cultural New Orleans backdrop provide a reader with a lasting impression and an awe for Williams's impeccable style and intense dialogue.

A masterpiece by Williams
Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire" came to Broadway in 1947, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and was made into an award-winning film. But you don't have to wait to see a stage or video version of the play. "Streetcar" is one of those theatrical triumphs which also succeeds in book form as a compelling read.

Taking place in New Orleans, "Streetcar" tells the painful story of aging southern belle Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella, Stella's brutish husband Stanley, and the circle of people who frequent Stella's home. Williams creates an incisive examination of human sexuality and socioeconomic difference. His characters come to life with powerful dialogue; this play is a heartbreaking read.

A compelling companion text for "Streetcar" would be Eugene O'Neill's classic play "Anna Christie," which won the Pulitzer for the 1921-22 theater season. Like "Streetcar," "Anna" deals with male expectations of female sexuality in a powerful way.

Willams' Blanche is truly one of the most memorable female characters in United States literature. "Streetcar" is an unforgettable tapestry of desire, shame, and disturbing revelations. An essential text for anybody with an interest in 20th century drama.

A Piece of America
Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece has been the source of controversy since it was written five decades ago. It is the story of the fallen Southern belle Blance Dubois, whose desperate illusions of grandeur are rent to shreds by her earthy and realistic brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Touching on issues of prejudice, sexual codependence, mental breakdown, and rape, A Streetcar Named Desire is at times disturbing in its brutal honesty. Readings of this sultry play have found it to be anything from a critique of the conflict between the North and South in post Civil War America, to a subtle commentary on the struggles of Williams' life as a homosexual. The image of Stanley bellowing drunkenly to his wife Stella, as well as lines such as Blanche telling how she has "always depended on the kindness of strangers" have become so much a part of the American consciousness that they are recognizable even to those who are unfamiliar with Williams' work itself.