Copyright Date:
1945
Edition Date:
1999
Release Date:
06/17/99
Pages:
xxii, 105 p.
ISBN:
Publisher: 0-8112-1404-4 Perma-Bound: 0-8479-5550-8
ISBN 13:
Publisher: 978-0-8112-1404-9 Perma-Bound: 978-0-8479-5550-3
Dewey:
812
LCCN:
98054624
Dimensions:
20 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
Voice of Youth Advocates
(Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)
Covering major works in classic and contemporary Western literature, these literary guides provide the reader with background, summary, and critical analysis. Each volume follows the same format, including author biography, "the story behind the story," and insights from various critics. The annotated bibliography is detailed as are the notes and works cited. Guides to A Tale of Two Cities and The Glass Menagerie are typical of volumes in this series. The approach to Dickens's novel focuses on its atypical nature, which is seen, in part, as a product of the author's life: "A Tale of Two Cities is the work of a man in his second youth, euphemistic for midlife crisis." The detailed summary offers chapter-by-chapter analysis. The critical selections, thirteen in all, provide a range of classic to contemporary voices from Thomas Carlyle to Cates Baldridge. Topics explored include characters, rhetoric, and setting. Williams's play, which the critic calls "the work most consistently credited with securing fame for Williams," is analyzed in depth, scene by scene. Religious imagery provides a main focus: "When Laura departs one hears 'Ave Maria' in the background." Critical voices provided in this volume focus on the work's symbolism, characters, and staging. This series offers scholarly analysis in a highly readable format. Whether the books are used by students to supplement their reading of the works or as a source for research assignments, they would be an outstanding addition to high school libraries.-Christine Sanderson.
Word Count:
20,698
Reading Level:
5.3
Interest Level:
9+
Accelerated Reader:
reading level: 5.3
/ points: 3.0
/ quiz: 5982
/ grade: Upper Grades
Reading Counts!:
reading level:9.0 /
points:7.0 /
quiz:Q04541
Lexile:
NP
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1945 for his "memory" play, The Glass Menagerie; it was his first success. His protagonist, Tom Wingfield, recalls events at his troubled home in St. Louis, where his suffocating mother, Amanda Wingfield, badgers him to locate a gentleman caller for his sister, Laura, a shy, lame girl who occupies herself with music and a collection of glass animals. Readers approaching this semi-autobiographical Southern Gothic drama will appreciate the quick-reference study helps offered here, such as the biographical sketch and character list. Advanced students will value the selective critical extracts and annotated bibliography.
Excerpted from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Menagerie was Williams's first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by prominent Williams scholar Robert Bray, editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award: "More than fifty years after telling his story of a family whose lives form a triangle of quiet desperation, Williams's mellifluous voice still resonates deeply and universally." This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes." The cover features the classic line drawing by Alvin Lustig, originally done for the 1949 New Directions edition.
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