In his first novel, British scholar Christopher W.E. Bigsby provides a prequel to The Scarlet Letter, introducing readers to a younger Hester Prynne. He tells of her attempts to flee an oppressive marriage to Roger Chillingworth, her love affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, and her life in the New World. In the process, Bigsby condemns the obstacles and prejudices that strong, intelligent women faced in the 17th century, providing a powerful narrative reframing of a compelling literary character.
In his first novel, British scholar Christopher W.E. Bigsby provides a prequel to The Scarlet Letter, introducing readers to a younger Hester P...
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal...
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer ...
A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the...
A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential na...
The forgotten classic that launched the career of one of America's greatest playwrights
It took more than fifty years for The Man Who Had All the Luck to be appreciated for what it truly is: the first stirrings of a genius that would go on to blossom in such masterpieces as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Infused with the moral malaise of the Depression era, the parable-like drama centers on David Beeves, a man whose every obstacle to personal and professional success seems to crumble before him with ease. But his good fortune merely serves to reveal the...
The forgotten classic that launched the career of one of America's greatest playwrights
It took more than fifty years for The Man Who Had ...
This is the first of two volumes in which Christopher Bigsby offers extended critical readings of the work of the leading dramatists and theatre groups in twentieth-century America. In this century drama has emerged as one of the most exciting expressions of American creativity, and during the 1930s became a primary means of addressing the cultural, political and economic changes of the period. But it has received surprisingly little attention. This is a chronological and selective study related to American culture as a whole and providing a picture of a vigorous theatre in the process of...
This is the first of two volumes in which Christopher Bigsby offers extended critical readings of the work of the leading dramatists and theatre group...
In this the third and final volume of his critical account of American drama in the twentieth century Christopher Bigsby turns from the text-oriented drama of Williams, Miller and Albee (volume two) in order to trace other, parallel theatrical developments of the post-war period, including contemporary groups and playwrights.
'Beyond Broadway' denotes the geographical and spiritual challenges to prevailing standards which so fragmented the theatre of the 1960s in particular. Following his analysis of the Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway playwrights and theatres, Dr Bigsby separates the...
In this the third and final volume of his critical account of American drama in the twentieth century Christopher Bigsby turns from the text-oriented ...
A cofounder of the Provincetown Players and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was one of the first female playwrights. Although long neglected, the four plays collected in this critical edition reveal the thoroughly modern nature of her concerns. Trifles (1916) develops a feminist critique of social role, while The Outside (1917) stages a debate between the life force and a perverse celebration of death. In The Verge (1921), Glaspell presented an experimental work of considerable proportions, more daring in many ways than anything attempted by O'Neill. And...
A cofounder of the Provincetown Players and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was one of the first female playwrights. ...
The first multi-volume history of the American theater to have been published, The Cambridge History of American Theatre is an authoritative and wide-ranging history of American theater in all its dimensions. It recognizes changing styles of presentation and performance, and addresses the economic context that conditions the drama presented. Volume One brings together the work of ten major authorities on American theater and drama. Like each of the three volumes, Volume One includes an extensive overview and timeline followed by chapters on specific aspects of American theater up to c. 1870.
The first multi-volume history of the American theater to have been published, The Cambridge History of American Theatre is an authoritative and wide-...
The playwrights covered in this study have among them won most of the available awards and experienced considerable success in the theater. They have not, however, found their way so easily into the academic canon. Christopher Bigsby examines, in some detail, the developing careers of some of America's most fascinating and original dramatic talent: John Guare, Tina Howe, Tony Kushner, Emily Mann, Richard Nelson, Marsha Norman, David Rabe, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, and Lanford Wilson. In addition to the well-known works, Bigsby discusses some of their latest plays to reach the stage....
The playwrights covered in this study have among them won most of the available awards and experienced considerable success in the theater. They have ...
