Product Description

This volume contains four of the most important and famous plays of the American theatre. All were written by Arthur Miller within a ten-year period which began with his first Broadway hit in 1947: 'With the production of All My Sons,' wrote Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times, 'the theatre has acquired a genuine new talent.' This hit was followed by an even greater play: Death of a Salesman. 'A great play of our day', wrote the New York Herald Tribune and the play has gone on to become the classic American tragedy of Willy Loman, a salesman who becomes disillusioned with the American dream. The Crucible(1953) was produced during the McCarthy era and became a parable of the witch-hunting practises of a government rooting out Communists. A View from the Bridge(1955) concerns the lives of longshoremen in the Brooklyn waterfront and has remained one of Miller's most produced plays. A Memory of Two Mondays, a one-act play, was written as a companion piece to A View from the Bridge."The greatest American dramatist of our age" (Evening Standard)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123050 in Books
• Published on: 1988-05-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

Quality writing
What can I say? Arthur Miller is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how a playwright constructs a play. Death of a Salesman is probably the most accssesible play here-but the Crucible is a good read too.

A joy to read
Out of all the plays which are in this book, A View from the Bridge has to be my favourite. Miller writes about family conflict, betrayal and love. Each time I read the play my views of Eddie change, is he an over protective family man or is he a man obsessed with power? Alfieri, the lawyer acts as a dramatic device, and in a way like a Greek chorus, giving the audience clues to what is going to happen. As we read we can see the tragedy unfold before us and we know that Catherine will fall in love with Rodolpho and that it will not end happily. Much like All my Sons and Death of a Salesman we do not read Miller's plays for a happy ending but to know what is going to happen and how. This book really is a must for all Miller fans.