Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24027 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Synopsis
Hamm: We're not beginning to to mean something?Clov: Mean something? You and I mean something?(from 'Endgame' by Samuel Beckett) Martin Esslin coined the phrase 'Theatre of the Absurd' in this ground-breaking book, and the term has become part of the language just as this book has become an indispensable part of any literature and drama library: the definitive study of the playwrights who have dramatised the fundamental absurdity of the human condition. In this readable and illuminating work - still a classic of theatre studies - Esslin shows how Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter and others have confronted a world in which there is no communication and where man flounders in a void, cut off from his roots and shorn of all certainties."A seminal work" (Independent)"An exciting and stimulating book, a very useful reference work and a standard textbook" (Literary Review)

Customer Reviews

Absurdlutely Inviting
This editortial on the Theatre of the Absurd should not only be part of a theatre students library, but also that of any theatre practitioners library.
This book is easy to read without being patronising, it is fair and well researched. It is also good to resad in the foreword that the playwrights also have made a contribution to the book by reviewing their chapters.
Esslin has been able to investigate a number of plays and playwrights without having prejudice for or against the theatre movement in question.
I have learnt to look deeply into the theatre of the absurd and the reasons for it without having to define the meanings behind it. This book has acted as a clear and enjoyable journey into The Theatre of the Absurd.