About this title: Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle, arrives to see her sister Stella in New Orleans. An alcoholic, clinging to the Southern tradition, she criticizes Stella for losing the family home to marry the rugged and crude Stanley Kowalski. Blanche lives in her own grieving, half-mad fantasy world; this ires Stanley, who ruins her relationship with another man, rapes her, and further accelerates her descent into madness.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet, Bergenfield, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780451167781ISBN:0451167783
Description: Good. 0451167783 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in good condition, varying degrees of shelf wear, some spine creases, m..._ read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Signet
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780451167781ISBN:0451167783
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Signet
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780451163165ISBN:0451163168
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"Reading A Streetcar Named Desire differed a lot from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which made it a pleasure reading. Tennessee Williams once again proved his craft in the world of play writing with his protagonist Blanche Dubois. A schoolteacher from Mississippi, Blanche moves down to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski in New Orleans. She tries to cover up her flaws with a "rich" persona, and her bossy, superior attitude; only to reveal later on that she loses the plantation that her family lived on, the Belle Reve due to foreclosure, indicating financial issues, and her alcohol problem indicating insecurities about herself.
Class struggles, power, deception and identity are some of the major themes that make the play the critically acclaimed piece that it has become. Blanche's desire to stay strong and youthful, disguising the pain and tragedy in her life and illuminating her own world which leads her to a mental institution at the end keeps the reader anxious for more out of the captivating character. Stanley's bestiality nature and Polish descent, a note of high criticism, disrupts the relationship between Blanche and her sister, Stella and Stanley, and Blanche and her one time boyfriend Mitch. Stella's soft, inferior attitude is the key to Blanche and Stanley's control, and the whole storyline in general definitely keeps the reader turning the pages for more.
I would recommend this book to anyone because its a quick read, but something that you have to take your time to understand even the smallest of details, since they will go unnoticed, leaving you with questions to wonder in the future."
"This play may very well be the great shining masterpiece of Modern American Theatre, and having not read it since high school, I felt like I was reading an altogether new work. I want to emphasize how very satisfying it is to read A Streetcar Name Desire verses seeing it performed. First and foremost is the poetic vigor and pitch-perfect metaphor that Tennessee Williams invests in his scene descriptions and character directions. Second is the meta-dialogue a personal reading inspires. Third, reading clarifies how architecturally perfect the narrative is constructed: the ever increasing tension of the story earns each dramatic moment, and though the breakdown is inevitable it is handled with an ear to the tenor of each voice and a fluidity of pacing.
Finally, Tennessee Williams' introductory essay "A Streetcar Named Success" (in the Signet Classics edition), is a wonderfully pathos driven plea for artistic integrity and a refreshing reminder of how and why an artist continues to create art even in the face of desolation and despair."
"I've seen the 1951 film directed by Elia Kazan and was compelled to read the actual play afterward. Although I'd read Tennessee Williams in high school, this particular play was not a part of the curriculum (likely due to the play's content). I'm glad I didn't read this play when I was younger because I probably wouldn't appreciate it as much.
Williams writes great tragic characters, evidenced here in Blanche DuBois. She's pretty much off her rocker, and she's done a lot of regrettable things in her past, but the reader still feels a bit of sympathy for her. At least I did. Her foil is her crude brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski. He's truly one of literature's most menacing characters. He exudes physical appeal, but he's so frightening in his outbursts of anger that it makes you want to take his wife Stella and her sister Blanche out of that dingy New Orleans apartment just to get them away from him.
I've not read too many plays in my life, but this one was certainly worth reading. A true modern American classic. It's no wonder the play has been produced in so many countries around the world for the last six decades."
"At the beginning of 2009, I saw Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire on stage. As one of the most iconic American plays, I was surprised to learn that it hadn't been shown onstage in Los Angeles for 20 or so years. It seems as if the Williams' estate does not allow many productions of the play, which made me glad to attend.
At the same time, I was saddened to hear that was the case. I feel that plays are meant to be seen rather than read. The written part is the skeleton and the director, actors, stage crew carve out the flesh. But then, while telling these thoughts to a friend, I learned that said friend had devoured every single Williams' word on the page. In fact, A Streetcar Named Desire was one of her favorite reads. Well, and so we come to why I am writing this entry.
I read A Streetcar Named Desire, and I'm really glad I did, especially to compare it to the production and famous Elia Kazan movie. For those of you who don't know the infamous plot, it is: The penniless Blanche arrives in the French Quarter of New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and Stella's husband Stanley. Stanley and Blanche never hit it off. Stanley is visceral, intelligent and realistic. Blanche is ephemeral, dainty, nervous, and trying to live in a fantasy. Stanley's desires and Blanche's desires hit head on and leave Blanche broken and uttering her famous line: "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."
I have to admit that prior to seeing it onstage, I never really *got* it. I always felt like Blanche and Stanley were supposed to be interesting and complicated as was the title. But then, something really clicked for me. The streetcar that brings Blanche to the Kowalski apartment is named "Desire." Blanche is brought to it by her desires to escape. But the apartment is the home of Stanley and Stella's desires for each other, which leave no room for Blanche. Blanche has a line where she wonders if life is like a streetcar named desire that just clangs up and down the same track. And I was like AHA! In this play desire is super destructive. Desire leads each character into a rut. Those who want to break out of it can't because their desires keep them where they are, i.e. Blanche wants to escape her reputation and past and just hide but her desires keep her vulnerable. And then there are those who want to stay in the tracks of desire and get derailed, i.e. Stanley feels like was fine until Blanche so he needs to violently get her out of the way of his desires.
So glad I read it. It's always nice to get into a classic and see why it deserves to be one."
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