Approaches the problems of obscurities, ambiguities, and interrelationships in Pinter's plays through the mechanisms of the dream and shows that the plays group around the oedipal wish.
Harold Pinter has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential playwrights in contemporary theatre: his arresting and original works have left a lasting imprint on the development of the stage and screen while delighting audiences around the world.
A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Harold Pinter, receiver of the New York Critics' Antoinette Perry Award for Best Broadway Drama in 1967. Titles in this study guide include The Homecoming, The Comedies of Menace, The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, and other minor works. As an author of mid-twentieth-century drama, Pinter wrote about physical and psychological threats to the status quo in his stories, creating an atmosphere that simultaneously moves the plot forward and involves the audience in its implications. Moreover, his work portrayed themes discussing communication, domination, and an individual’s psychological needs. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Pinter’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research
“One of the most essential artists produced by the twentieth century. Pinter’s work gets under our skin more than that of any living playwright.” —New York Times Upon its premiere at the National Theatre, Betrayal was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It won the Olivier Award for best new play, and has since been performed all around the world and made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, and Patricia Hodge. Betrayal begins with a meeting between adulterous lovers, Emma and Jerry, two years after their affair has ended. During the nine scenes of the play, we move back in time through the stages of their affair, ending in the house of Emma and her husband Robert, Jerry’s best friend. “[Betrayal] deals with the shifting balance of power in triangular relationships, and with the pain of loss. . . . Pinter probes the corrosive nature of betrayal . . . a world where pain and loss are explored with poetic precision.” —Guardian “Betrayal is an exquisite play, brilliantly simple in form and courageous in its search for a poetry that turns banality into a melancholy beauty.” —Newsweek “There is hardly a line into which desire, pain, alarm, sorrow, rage or some kind of blend of feelings has not been compressed, like volatile gas in a cylinder less stable than it looks . . . The play's subject is not sex, not even adultery, but the politics of betrayal and the damage it inflicts on all involved.” —Times (UK)
Dramatist, scriptwriter, short story writer, novelist, poet, director, and actor, Harold Pinter has earned universal praise for his distinctive style and imagination. In this, the most recent of four volumes, Pinter's work echoes many of his earlier themes and techniques-struggles for power and an ambience of menace-while finding fresh subject matter and means to express his changing dramatic vision. This volume contains three of Pinter's most famous plays, including Old Times, which Clive Barnes called "a joyous, wonderful play that people will talk about as long as we have theater"; a television play, Monologue; and a radio piece, Family Voices. Includes: Old Times No Man's Land Betrayal Monologue Family Voices
Full of surprising juxtapositions and possessed of a gargantuan range of voices and styles, 99 Poems in Translation is a unique convergence of some of the world’s most beautiful poetry. The poets range from Anna Akhmatova to Yuan Chen, from Charles Baudelaire to Virgil, each of them translated into memorable English by such poetic luminaries as Ben Johnson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Graves. Arranged alphabetically, this collection span centuries and continents.