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A Streetcar Named Desire
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Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Arthur Miller.
'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers'
Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.
Tennessee Williams's steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), The Night of the Iguana (1961), and Small Craft Warnings (1972).
If you enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire, you might like The Glass Menagerie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
'Lyrical and poetic and human and heartbreaking and memorable and funny'
Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather
'One of the greatest American plays'
Observer
show more
'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers'
Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche's fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.
Tennessee Williams's steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), The Night of the Iguana (1961), and Small Craft Warnings (1972).
If you enjoyed A Streetcar Named Desire, you might like The Glass Menagerie, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
'Lyrical and poetic and human and heartbreaking and memorable and funny'
Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather
'One of the greatest American plays'
Observer
show more
Product details
- Paperback | 128 pages
- 129 x 198 x 7mm | 100g
- 01 Jul 2009
- Penguin Books Ltd
- PENGUIN CLASSICS
- London, United Kingdom
- English
- 0141190272
- 9780141190273
- 4,153
Review quote
"In Streetcar Williams found images and rhythms that are still part of the way we think and feel and move..." Blanche is the Everest of modern American drama, a peak of psychological complexity and emotional range.--John Lahr The introductions, by playwrights as illustrious as Williams himself, are the gem of these new editions.--Ken Furtado In Streetcar Williams found images and rhythms that are still part of the way we think and feel and move.--Jack Kroll Lyrical and poetic and human and heartbreaking and memorable and funny.--Francis Ford Coppola
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About Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real (1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Period of Adjustment (1960), The Night of the Iguana (1961), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963; revised 1964) and Small Craft Warnings (1972).
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Our customer reviews
Tennessee Williams explores, once again, the complexities of women in this thrilling and deep drama.
Blanche DuBois takes a break from her life and pays a visit to her sister Stella and her husband in New Orleans. There, Blanche will deal not only with her own problems but also with her sister's marital troubles and what the early 20th century society regarded as "proper" for both single and married women.
With a fierce social critique, Williams manages to create one of the best and most interesting female characters of the last century, comparable only to other great literary heroins such as Lady Chatterley and Madame Bovary. In fact, the greatness of this character has recently attracted the attention of two Academy Award-winning actresses (Rachel Weisz and Cate Blanchett) who could not help to portrait the brilliant Blanche in two different productions, in London and in NYC.
"A Streetcar Named Desire" makes an amazing and deep, yet easy, reading not only for women but anyone interested in good literature, classic works, drama or, to put it simply, life in general.show more
by Elena