About this title: Tom Stoppard's magnificent trilogy, "The Coast of Utopia," was the most keenly awaited and successful drama of 2007. Now "Stoppard's crowning achievement" (David Cote, "Time Out New York") has been collected in one volume, with an introduction by the author, and includes the definitive text used during Lincoln Center's recent celebrated run. "The ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Grove Pr
Date Published: 2007-11-06
ISBN-13:9780802143402ISBN:0802143407
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780802143402. read more
Edition: First Edition Thus
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: Grove Press, New Yor
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780802118653ISBN:0802118658
Description: Fine in Fine Slipcase jacket. Signed by Author First edition thus, the US hardcover one-volume limited signed edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Tom Stoppard. A fine unread copy in fine slipcase, still in publisher's shrinkwrap. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: GROVE/ATLANTIC INC
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780802143402ISBN:0802143407
Description: New. The Coast of Utopia is Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michae... read more
Edition: Limited Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grove Press, New York
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780802118653ISBN:0802118658
Description: Octavo. xv, 347pp. Full plum cloth stamped in gilt, in a matching slipcase; Fine. One of 250 numbered copies signed by the author. Image or additional images available upon request. read more
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New York, New York, U.S.A. : Grove Pr
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780802143402ISBN:0802143407
Description: As New. Signed by Author(s) This celebrated group of three plays was a sensational triumph in London and Broadway. Here is the beautiful US Grove Press first printing of the first large format soft cover edition, with text changes. And Tom Stoppard has signed it on the title page. Very rare indeed. read more
"Voyage: The beginning of this play was strangely atypical of Stoppard. Not only is it based on Russian life in the 19th century, it READ like something written by a 19th century Russian. It became more Stoppard-like once people start philosophizing about art and beauty, but even then, there is none of the normal Stoppard humor. I guess it's most similar to Arcadia, but even that is more absurd than this. The only humor here feels like Chekhov, i.e. people running out of rooms crying and then falling down the stairs.
Regardless, I liked it a lot! This is the first play I've read since taking Modern Drama, and it's nice to realize that I remember some things from Arcadia and The Cherry Orchard. Also, as I've been picking up more and more philosophy lately, I like the parts about trying to identify what makes us human, why we value art, why we think things are beautiful vs. rationality.
Shipwreck: Still interesting, some intriguing soliloquies, but not as enjoyable as Voyage. It focused a lot more on grand movements of history rather than the more intimate details of domestic life. Plus, I got confused a lot by all the characters that were either new or barely introduced in the first play. For one, there are many of them, but also, they just weren't very distinct, and I feel like that lines up with the trend towards the historical rather than the personal. The characters just became mouthpieces for historical events rather than entities unto themselves. The only emotions that seemed real occurred towards the end, concerning Kolya's death. Maybe it's just less convincing on paper than on the stage.
Salvage: Similar to Shipwreck- way too wrapped up in historical details for me to follow. Uh..so much so that I don't remember much to comment on, even a week after finishing. D'oh."
"This set of 3 plays concerns the activities of 19th century Russian 'revolutionaries'--democrats or socialists--both in Russia and in exile elsewhere in Europe. The large troupe can be hard to keep up with, but the central character, Alexander Herzen, ties things together and becomes a kind of hero of reality instead of theory or 'utopia'. I found myself fascinated by Stoppard's depiction of Turgenev. Maybe it's time to read a bit more of Turgenev. (I've read only a part of Taras Bulba.)"
"Tom Stoppard's sparkling trilogy of plays gives the reader a lot to ponder over the course of the lives of these Russian intelligentsia. We see their birth in the Cherry Orchard-like opening, as the moment of change from aristocracy to middle class leftist is pointed in a frozen moment of family joyfully trotting around its land. As the story moves forward, the political becomes personal and the personal becomes political again, as Alexander Herzen steps forward as the leader of his friends and of the intelligentsia, and the women in his life suffer from both the dying of the old world and the creation of a new one.
Stoppard has a way with double-casting and a way with time. Everything in his writing is refractive. People view each other through the parents or sister who raised them, and so does the reader or audience member, because the characters are being played by the same sister and brother or parents and brother. Everything repeats itself, usually a comforting motif in his work, as the circular nature of life's beginnings and endings allow for multiple chances to make good. However, in Coast of Utopia, the casting is haunting, granting Herzen constant reminders of another life, pointing out that one's democratic and intellectual life gives little fulfillment if one is not simply not free to feel happiness.
And of course, per usual, the language is beautiful, reflexive and remarkable. Of particular interest to the reader are verbal giants Bakunin and Belinsky, a man who can stop a train with his literary sentiments, but can't handle cleaning up the wreck afterwards."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
