A Streetcar Named Desire

Book Description

Published in 1949 by John Lehman. Very good copy in a very good dust jacket with slight wear. There are minor foxing, nicks, and wear to the dust jacket, with an ink inscription. The basis of the 1951 film (winner of three Academy Awards) starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, Williams's play is one of the works by which 20th-century America defines itself. First English edition of this landmark, Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, featuring Williams's riveting creations.

Customer Reviews:

The Glorious Bird's iconic melodrama.......2007-06-18

This is probably the most famous piece of literature from the US that I hadn'd read yet, until now. Nor watched as a play or movie. And still I seemed to know everything about it.
Having just read Gore Vidal's memoirs, where he calls TW the 'glorious bird', I was motivated to finally get acquainted with the streetcar. What fun. It is Gone with the Wind updated for the 20th century. It is the downsizing of rural gentry. It shows downward social mobility in a narrative framework of Southern Gothic. It is powerfully vulgar and perceptive. It is so politically not correct. ('Polacks are like Irish, only less highbrow.')
But with all the mad fun, let's be clear about this: despite the popular use of the term 'tragic' for the descent of Ms. Blanche into madness, this is not really a tragedy in the full sense of the word. Being a piece of stage writing makes it one only in the sense of not being a comedy. What it is, it is a really great melodrama.
A word about the genius casting for the movie: Marlon Brando dominated it more than the text justifies. Gore Vidal says in his memoirs that Kazan actually destroyed the play by pushing the Blanche character into 2nd row. He says that TW did not mind, since it made him famous.

A Streetcar Named ... Classic.......2007-06-12

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Blanche's final decree before being taken away to the insane asylum is an ironic remark which Tennessee Williams uses to harshly criticize the promiscuous lifestyle of Miss DuBois in his classic "A Streetcar Named Desire." Moreover, it is a testimony to how Blanche sets herself up for disaster.

Blanche DuBois is the southern belle whom the play revolves around, and she is certainly a character to be remembered for the ages. She escapes her deeply immoral past by fleeing to her sister Stella's homely apartment in New Orleans, only to discover that it is a complete cultural departure. A high-maintenance chauvinist upon arrival, Blanche is critical of everything in Stella's life, from her husband to her living arrangements. Blanche is dishonest about her past, lies about her alcoholism and covers up affairs with students--the complete opposite of moral perfection. Her constant affairs with unknown men back in Laurel caused Blanche to be kicked out of a two-bit hotel, and her affair with a teenage boy lost Blanche her job, illustrating Blanche as a wanton woman.

So where is this "kindness of strangers" that Blanche so respects? The irony lies in that Blanche has not always been treated well by strangers, and that her relationships with these sorts of people often fare poorly, and so the fact that she relies on them for the welfare of her life is paradoxical. Williams condemns Blanche of her loose lifestyle, sleeping around with various men whom she does not know, and ultimately sentences her to the insane asylum, demonstrating that those with lifestyles like that of Blanche will merit the same fate. The southern belle image which Blanche allegedly epitomizes soon fades, and Williams takes this fact and emphasizes it to the audience. All of this adds up to a cornucopia of shameful aspects which Blanche attempts to hide from by deluding herself in fantastical images. Blanche has always differentiated herself as being more idealistic than realistic, and so her retreat into her fantasies is no surprise--she needs to escape the harshness of the real world. She herself is fading, and so her mentality follows.

It is an important lesson which Williams teaches us about distinctions between reality and unlikely fantasies. Despite the fact that the real world may bring obstacles and roadblocks, as shown through the relationship between Stanley and Stella (which I won't delve into as my focus is on Blanche), living in reality is always a better idea than drowning yourself in fantasies. Blanche carries with her a whole plethora of stigmas and taboos that Williams deems necessary for her loose character, so that he may, in turn, teach lessons of morality to the audience. Blanche is a complex character that we can all learn from, and Williams makes that clear through the intricate development of Blanche. "Streetcar" is certainly one of the most interesting plays that I have ever read, and it is definitely a necessary component to the shelf of American classics.

A tragic story that illustrates the pitiful life of a lost woman.......2007-06-12

Despite its strange title, this book is a guaranteed to motivate you to appreciate your own life by learning of the tragedies of others. In the story of "A Streetcar Named Desire," the plot follows one particular character, Blanche, who is constantly struggling to accept the conditions of her current, impoverished conditions. Even after becoming homeless and being forced to move into her sister Stella's home in order to re-invent her life after her troubled past, she continues to lie to cover up her past's secrets and ironically ruins her chances of ever starting anew. Throughout the story, a reader can witness how her lies cause her to lose a potential husband and all in all, lose her sanity. Because of her reluctance to inform even her sister of a shameful past, she causes distrust amongst her peers which leads her to be unable to lead a normal relationship with society. Her distrustful nature even causes her peers and even her sister to become suspicious of the stories she desperately tells to cover up the failures of her life. Follow the pitiful character, Blanche, as she deals with the struggles of her life, her family and her peers. Thus, the author illustrates that by understanding your mistakes, circumstances and the need for change, you could always change your destiny, Can Blanche ever come to her senses? I highly recommend "Streetcar Named Desire" because anyone can draw an important lesson from the mistakes of Blanche and the simple message of reality over fantasy can easily be seen in this book.

The Streetcar.......2007-06-12

Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is an excellent tragic play focused on the pathetic lifestyle of the play's protagonist, Blanche DuBois. Blanche is annoyed and obnoxious on all levels; but the way she demeans herself and essentially destroys her own dignity demands the readers' sympathy.

Blanche is forced to travel to New Orleans to stay at her sister's house ever since her plantation Belle Reve (beautiful dream in French) was lost. The name is important, as Blanche completely submerges herself in these beautiful dreams and freely throws away any ounce of reality she refuses to see. Once we see her sister Stella, we immediately know that they are extremely different as Stella is the realistic sister who moved on from a turbulent past. Personalities collide when Stella introduces Blanche to her husband, the infamous Stanley Kowalski. Yes, his is blunt, brutal, and barbaric. But his personality adds complexity to the novel as he is the foil of Blanche, which ends in some major tragedies.

Marlon Brando fans will probably revere the way he acts out Stanley in the film adaptation. I prefer reading the book.

a great classic delivering a moving message about being comfortable in your own skin.......2007-06-12

The play as a whole representing the trials and tribulations of reinventing oneself is a caveat to those that attempt to achieve this remarkable goal as the characters in A Street Car Named Desire are shown as incapable of fixing their own lives. This is shown none more than in the protagonist, Blanche DuBois, who struggles continually with the battles of her past actions, signifying the decline of the American Dream that she had previously believed to be attainable.

America was once thought of as a place where anything could be achieved with ease, no matter how severe the obstacle; but Tennessee Williams proves this idea wrong as no matter how far Blanche goes to start over in life, her past always haunts her. Blanche has made some brutal mistakes in her life and tries throughout the entire play to escape from them. She leaves her hometown after being forced out and decides to start anew by living with Stella in New Orleans. Once there, she lies about her mistakes to try and escape from them. She is able to do this for a while, but her secrets are soon discovered. Once Stanley confronts her with the truth, Blanche realizes that this dream, this American dream she had had is unattainable. She cannot run away from her past no matter how hard she tries.

What Blanche does not realize, however is that maybe she cannot rely on the American Dream to save her, but she could have decided to change by recognizing her mistakes and moving on from there. Many people make the mistake of thinking that by coming to America, things will just work out in their favor. They do not realize that this takes much work to do. In this sense, the traditional American Dream has died, leaving many people helpless in the world, just like Blanche. The reason that this fails though is that Blanche's one method of starting over is to simply lie. She does not change herself so she is bound to make those same mistakes again, as she eventually does.

Blanche's actions are intended to warn those against simply trusting it to faith that they will be able to start over in life. Not everything can be forgotten because sometimes one's actions affect others around them. It is not just their own lives that they are gambling with but also anyone's who is in close contact with them. It is not enough to rely on the idea of an American Dream to save oneself. Actions must be taken to benefit lives. A sense of apathy will go nowhere in life. Ultimately, change brings about change, so that is what it needed.

A Streetcar Named Desire (New Directions Paperbook)

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STEELLLLLAAAAA!

A Streetcar Named Desire (New Directions Paperbook)
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811216020

Book Description

The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award winning play—reissued with an introduction by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams' essay "The World I Live In."

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the '40s and '50s.

Who better than America's elder statesman of the theater, Williams' contemporary Arthur Miller, to write as a witness to the lightning that struck American culture in the form of A Streetcar Named Desire? Miller's rich perspective on Williams' singular style of poetic dialogue, sensitive characters, and dramatic violence makes this a unique and valuable new edition of A Streetcar Named Desire. This definitive new edition will also include Williams' essay "The World I Live In," and a brief chronology of the author's life.

Customer Reviews:

STEELLLLLAAAAA!.......2006-07-14

I've just finished reading this book, and have decided it is the best book I've ever read. Tennessee Williams brings together Stella, Stanley - her brutish husband- and Blanche Dubois, Stella's sister. Blanche comes to live with Stella and Stanley after she is kicked out of a different town for being a flirt. Stella who is in denial about this tries her best to be a good host and comfort Blanche. Stanley is more wise than Stella and does research. Through a whirlwind of the blue piano that plays by their street, and poker nights, Blanche realizes she is no longer the sophisticated southern Belle she made herself out to be. Basically, Blanche goes crazy and was "forced" to deal with Stanley the way Stella has for the while they've been together.
I love this book because it's like nothing I've ever read before.

Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (Plays in Production)

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A Must Read for Anyone Interested in Tennessee Williams

Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (Plays in Production)
Philip C. Kolin
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521623448

Book Description

A Streetcar Named Desire revolutionized the modern stage and this book offers the first continuous history of the play in production from 1947 to 1998. Chapters survey major national premieres by the world's leading directors including Seki Sano, Luchino Visconti, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau and Laurence Olivier. Interpretations by Black and gay theater companies also receive analyses, and transformations into other media, such as ballet, film, television, and opera (premiered in 1998) form an important part of the overall study.

Customer Reviews:

A Must Read for Anyone Interested in Tennessee Williams.......2001-01-28

This is a valuable book for anyone interested in Williams and his most popular play. Kolin covers a great deal of fascinating productions and the role that the world's major directors have played in them--Kazan, Olivier, Ingrid Bergman, Cocteau, and Visconti. Drawing on reviews, interviews, and some very hard to find archival materials, Kolin takes us behind the scenes as we learn about how actors played Stanley and Blanche over the last fifty years. There are fascinating chapters, too, on the film and teleplay versions of Streetcar as well as the ballet and gay adaptations of Streetcar. Everything you ever wanted to know about Streetcar is here. Meticulously documented and artfully written--the photos are incredible.

Williams' Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire (Cliffs Notes

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The Glass Menagerie was a well written play.
Both of these books are terrible.

Williams' Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire (Cliffs Notes
James L. Roberts
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0822005336

Book Description

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer a look into key elements and ideas within classic works of literature.

CliffsNotes on Glass Menagerie & Streetcar Named Desire explores two popular plays, both of which take place in the South and borrow heavily from author Tennessee Williams’s own life experiences.

Following stories marked by struggle among loved ones, this study guide provides summaries and critical commentaries for each scene within the works. Other features that help you figure out this important work include

Personal background on the playwright
Introduction to and synopsis of the plays
In-depth analyses of the cast of characters
Review section that features interactive quizzes and suggested essay topics
Selected bibliographies for both plays

Classic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Customer Reviews:

The Glass Menagerie was a well written play........2000-05-03

Some people did not think much of the play, but I thought it was an excellent play. The charecter laura in the play is a crippled girl who feels that she is unable to do anything because she is crippled. Laura keeps a glass menagerie and is very attached to it because she feels they are like her, fragile and transparent. One of the glass charecters resembles her because it is different from all the other animals. Tom, who is Laura's brother wants to leave his house and do something adventurous with his life, but can't until his sister finds a suitible match. Amanda is their mother, who feels self-pity because her husband left her and she has to take care of two children. She keeps reminding Laura of how she always had so many gentelmen callers and Laura has none. This play ended sadly but made a good point.

Both of these books are terrible........1999-08-14

These two books were a waist of my time and money. I highly recommend that you not buy these. I did not like them because it was about nothing. I read and read (waisting time and time) trying to find something. "Did I?," you ask....NO! these are horrible books. Thank you.

Confronting Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire: Essays in Critical Pluralism (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)

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Confronting Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire: Essays in Critical Pluralism (Contributions in Drama and Theatre Studies)

Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313266816

Book Description

Fifteen distinguished scholars contribute original essays that analyze A Streetcar Named Desire, one of the most significant plays in modern theatre, from various critical or cultural stances, methods, or modalities. Represented as individual points of view or touched upon in the analysis are the theories of Lacan and Foucault and the tenets of Marxism; the approaches of Feminism, Reader Response Criticism, Deconstructionism, Chaos and Anti-Chaos Theory, Translation Theory, Formalism, Mythology, Perception Theory, and Gender Theory; and the perceptions of Popular Culture, Film History and Theory, Southern Letters, and assorted cultural and regional studies. The volume introduction charts the course of Streetcar criticism from its inception to the present. Each essay begins by articulating the theoretical principles and methods behind the critical approach pursued, then applies these to readings from Streetcar, utilizing and documenting relevant major research. Insightful and challenging, the readings, individually and collectively, advance the study of the play and Tennessee Williams's canon and reputation generally. Each essay offers a fresh, provocative view of a play that has long been discussed in simplistic and dichotomized terms: Blanche as victim/Stanley as predator; Streetcar as a play about a failed southern belle meeting a brutish Pole; or Streetcar as a work of Southern literature. Viewing the play through the lenses of cultural and critical pluralism, the contributors open up the script and expand our awareness of the problems and possibilities offered by this great modern classic.

Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 1: Battle of Angels / The Glass Menagerie / A Streetcar Named Desire

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Some of Williams Best

Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 1: Battle of Angels / The Glass Menagerie / A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811204170

Customer Reviews:

Some of Williams Best.......2001-05-04

I love all three plays. William's characters are driven by enthrolling energy and emotion. Also, the power stuggles of the characters adds a lot to the play. He relies heavily on the stereotypes of Southern people, but does not overdo it. All the plays leave the reader with a bundle of emotions on their hand

Ernest Hemingway's the Sun Also Rises (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

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Beauty in words
A True Classic
Absolutely terrible
Sitting Around, Feeling Sorry for Themselves
Hemingway good, story bad

Ernest Hemingway's the Sun Also Rises (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
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ASIN: 1555460453

Amazon.com

The Sun Also Rises first appeared in 1926, and yet it's as fresh and clean and fine as it ever was, maybe finer. Hemingway's famously plain declarative sentences linger in the mind like poetry: "Brett was damned good-looking. She wore a slipover jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was brushed back like a boy's. She started all that." His cast of thirtysomething dissolute expatriates--Brett and her drunken fiancé, Mike Campbell, the unhappy Princeton Jewish boxer Robert Cohn, the sardonic novelist Bill Gorton--are as familiar as the "cool crowd" we all once knew. No wonder this quintessential lost-generation novel has inspired several generations of imitators, in style as well as lifestyle.

Jake Barnes, Hemingway's narrator with a mysterious war wound that has left him sexually incapable, is the heart and soul of the book. Brett, the beautiful, doomed English woman he adores, provides the glamour of natural chic and sexual unattainability. Alcohol and post-World War I anomie fuel the plot: weary of drinking and dancing in Paris cafés, the expatriate gang decamps for the Spanish town of Pamplona for the "wonderful nightmare" of a week-long fiesta. Brett, with fiancé and ex-lover Cohn in tow, breaks hearts all around until she falls, briefly, for the handsome teenage bullfighter Pedro Romero. "My God! he's a lovely boy," she tells Jake. "And how I would love to see him get into those clothes. He must use a shoe-horn." Whereupon the party disbands.

But what's most shocking about the book is its lean, adjective-free style. The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's masterpiece--one of them, anyway--and no matter how many times you've read it or how you feel about the manners and morals of the characters, you won't be able to resist its spell. This is a classic that really does live up to its reputation. --David Laskin

Book Description

Bloom suggests that signs of the permanent canonical status of the work of Ernest Hemingway seem beyond doubt. He puts The Sun Also Rises on a short list of modern American novels that appear certain to endure.

The title, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Ernest Hemingway, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

Customer Reviews:

Beauty in words.......2007-09-17

Ernest Hemmingway in his unique style delivers a masterpiece in adult fiction. His prose is concise and words beauty known only to the reader. He creates a wonderful atmosphere of the locations and his character's travel through the landscape and through emotions is captured exceptionally well.

This is a timeless classic. There is nothing I can say to convince anyone to read it. The characters are well-developed. There is love and passion and pain and beauty. The world that Hemmingway recreates belongs with these characters. The book launched a successful career and in me it set in motion the desire to read everything ever written by this brilliant writer.

A True Classic.......2007-09-03

The Sun Also Rises turned out to be quite a remarkable read and a novel worthy of classic status. It is absolutely amazing how much symbolism and hidden meaning Hemingway can sneak in through his distinctive clear and simple prose style. On the other hand, if you are not paying attention and miss the implied messages then this novel will strike you as nothing particularly special.

The book is about a group of American and English expatriates residing in Paris during the 1920s. They live aimless, purposeless lives after World War I because their whole value system has been shaken up. They are members of the "Lost Generation", a term popularized by this very book. Although the plot is simplistic, with Jake Barnes and his friends traveling to Spain for the Pamplona fiesta, the brilliance of the novel shines through in the relationships and dialogue between characters. The rambunctious Lady Brett Ashley is the target of four men's desires and Hemingway uses her to exemplify the destructiveness of sex and the male insecurity felt after World War I. It is a world where everyone drowns their sorrows in alcohol. The novel ends in an outstanding description of a bull-fight and on a hopeful, wishing note.

The novel opened my eyes to how drastic the effects of WWI were on soldiers and how disenchanted some of them became with prewar values and notions. I also was truly impressed by Hemingway's bullfighting descriptions and how he made them seem almost like poetic events. The characters were likable and compelling, too, and gave the novel much life even without an enchanting plot. Although I couldn't relate to the characters all that well, I'm sure someone who has had more of life's experiences will have no trouble doing so. Altogether, Hemingway created a novel that changed the literary world forever and will leave a lasting impression in many minds for generations to come - it sure did in mine.

Absolutely terrible.......2007-08-02

I'm no scholar, no student of literature. I just like to read. Everything from Huxley to HST to Dan Brown... if a book is good, I'll read it. If a book sucks, I'll usually put it down about halfway through.

That's what bothers me the most about The Sun Also Rises. I've heard nothing but good things about Hemingway, how he's the greatest American author of all time. So even though page after page of this book was boring to the point of tears, I kept reading. I gave Hemingway the behefit of the doubt that at some point, SOMETHING other than dinner, drinking, and everyone taking their turn on the neighborhood whore would happen.

Unfortunately, nothing happens. There's no plot, no conflict -- wait, that's not true... everyone hates the Jewish guy and everyone wants to sleep with the same woman... let me clarify -- there's no conflict interesting enough to carry a novel, no interesting characters (everyone is either an alcoholic or a slut, who you'd think might be interesting, but they are really just sad and pathetic), and absolutely no action. I wish I had read something else by Hemingway first, because odds are that ANY book would be better than this one. But now that this is my first impression of him, unfortunately, I don't know if I'll ever pick up another one of his books. It really is that bad.

DON'T READ THIS BOOK!!!!

Sitting Around, Feeling Sorry for Themselves.......2007-07-08

In the shallow world of the characters of Ernest Hemingway, everybody seems to spend most of their time feeling sorry for themself. Going beyond the tragic hero, the charcters are perhaps best described as arrogant and self-centered. Coupled with the terse writing style of Hemingway, this makes for a quick read with a somewhat clever plot.

While bull fighting actually takes place in the plot, it is also a clever metaphor used in the story. The main character Robert Cohn follows Lady Brett Ashley around like a stupid bull follows a bull fighter. It is hard to feel sorry for Cohn when everybody realizes Brett's disinterest in Cohn except Cohn. It comes to a head when Brett falls for the bull fighter and Cohn assaults his friends for viciously taunting him about Brett's disinterest.

While the main theme is somewhat clever, much of the other prose seems to be self-loathing and scenary. When the characters get drunk, they pour their hearts and failures out like spilling wine. Even when Bret finds her resolution, the reader could anticipate the downfall.

It is difficult to like any character in the story which may leave the reader with an awkward feeling. The characters are depraved and infantile while searching for a love that eludes them. While the search for an elusive love is one that readers can identify with, the flaws in the characters make evident why their goals elude them.

Hemingway good, story bad.......2007-06-24

I've often wondered how I got through college as an English major without reading any Hemingway. The classics have always been my favorites, and American lit specifically. So, as an adult, I've tried to add some of those critically acclaimed books I missed in undergrad to my "Have Read" list. The first Hemingway book I read post-college was A Farewell to Arms. I liked it ... not loved, but liked it enough to read more of his work. But this one ... I struggled through it. I felt like each page was the same -- group of friends who don't all like each other and lots and lots of alcohol. I did make it to the end despite my minimal interest in the story (or lack there of) because, no matter what the story is, Ernest Hemingway's style of writing is a great example of a true gift.

Tennessee Williams's a Streetcar Named Desire (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

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One Of The Best!!

Tennessee Williams's a Streetcar Named Desire (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

Manufacturer: Chelsea House Publications
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Tennessee Williams's the Glass Menagerie and a Streetcar Named Desire (Barron's Book Notes)

ASIN: 1555460534

Book Description

Published in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire garnered Tennessee Williams the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Award. Considered a lyrical masterpiece, the drama reveals the destructive impact that ensues when romantic impulse encounters animal vitalism.

The title, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, part of Chelsea House Publishers' Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Tennessee Williams, a chronology of the author's life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

Customer Reviews:

One Of The Best!!.......2000-10-20

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams is one of the best plays that I have read in years. First adapted to film in 1951, by Oscar Saul. I must recommend this play to all theatre directors out there and say that this would be a very large hit.

Book Description

A biography of Tennessee Williams' iconic play and the movie adaptation that launched Marlon Brando's career-and defined Vivien Leigh's-by the author of All About All About Eveand Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard. Exhaustively researched, witty and exuberantly opinionated, When Blanche Met Brandois everything a fan needs to know about the ground-breaking New York and London stage productions of Williams' 'Streetcar' as well as the classic Brando/ Leigh film directed by Elia Kazan. Sam Staggs' interviews with the living cast members of each production reveal for the first time details of how the play became a classic, and make this book satisfying as both a pop culture read and as a deeper piece of thinking about a well-known story.Fans will renew their curiosity about the connection between the role of Blanche and Viven Leigh's insatiable sexual appetite and later descent into breakdown. They may also-for the first time-question whether the character of Blanche was actually 'mad' or whether her supposed madness was symptomatic of another disorder. The chapter on censorship of the film reads like a thriller-and an indictment. Staggs' new book will fascinate fans and enrich newcomers' understanding of A Streetcar Named Desire's importance in American theater and movie history.

Customer Reviews:

I Have Always Depended on the Kindness of Good Writing.......2007-07-30

I was thrilled to discover a book dedicated entirely to the history of this seminal piece of theatre. Imagine my disappointment when I found the author constantly injecting himself into the proceedings and peppering his prose with cheesy "insights," mainly about Brando's sex appeal or catty tangents that don't further one's understanding of the play/film. The editors must have been asleep at the wheel on this one as the book hopscotches around and, sadly, gives short shrift to the actual writing of the play. Ultimately the title's promise of something "Scandalous" is never really delivered, aside from some scandalously bad writing. The upside to this book is that it is meticulously researched and does contain some revelatory moments, especially interviews with long-forgotten actors, designers and behind-the-scenes players that helped shape the legend of "Streetcar."

Still think about it sometimes.......2007-07-27

Having been in love with Tennessee Williams works, particularly a Streetcar Named Desire, this book was a thrill to read. A man who has obviously done his research covers every nuance of the play and film.

I am now proud to know how everything was produced, the stories behind everyone from the costumer to the producer to actors, and continue to recognize them in other films. He gives you a view of many many different Blanches and productions, as well as a through view of the most famous ones.

And unlike the Tennessee Williams bio. by Donald Spoto, it rejoices the play rather than tries to find the negative.

It is everything you wanted to know about the play and more. And all in all the author clearly demonstrates a love for the play, and all it's beautiful details.

What about the other Stanleys?.......2007-07-03

I enjoyed Sam Staggs' book about "Streetcar!" However, I didn't find it as thorough as his other books about "All About Eve" and "Sunset Boulevard." There were plenty of details about the Brando-Tandy & Brando-Leigh versions of "Streetcar," but hardly a mention of the Ralph Meeker and Anthony Quinn/Uta Hagen productions of "Streetcar...!" There was one humourous mention of Judith Evelyn as Blanche, but I would have been more interested in hearing about these two versions rather than all the other operatic and various foreign productions of "Streetcar"!

a good ride .......2007-05-09

i enjoy sam staggs retelling of history. it is so obvious that he loves the films he researches. and it's just as obvious that he's a gay as a bunch of purple tulips!

i read through this book a good three times because the amount of research and interaction with the information is so dense that you just don't catch all of it the first time.

which film is next in his lexicon--'the women'--of course!

Reads like confessions of a culture vulture, volume 3........2006-09-19

I don't want to be harsh, but here goes.
'Exhaustively researched' is accurate, given the bibliography he consulted and referenced whatever he could mine from a daunting pile of works. One is grateful it all seems to be compiled in one volume but in the end was it necessary?

Staggs can't help but butt in with his personal opinions and unfounded speculation every now and again and you know he is scraping the bottom of the barrel when he starts obssesively listing every actress who ever played Blanche, tried on her costume or even contemplated playing Blanche, any headline that was ever printed that used the phrase 'kindness of strangers' and perhaps the most pitiful excuse ever to keep going with the topic, going so far as to invent backstage gossip.

I don't know if this amounts to a whole pile of beans or not, but you do feel that he took the lazy tabloid route and picked the film to pieces looking for scandal that wasn't really there. The author sheepishly admits as much. There have been brilliant assessments of Streetcar that have appraised the play, the social undercurrents and madness which inspired it, and it's impact to the public. Don't look for it here. This book doesn't have this solid foundation of academic scholarship or critique. It's thesis is mere curiosity. It's more of a complete idiots guide that goes in all directions rather than an studied annotation. Maybe it is simply that the story of putting Streetcar out on film isn't as fascinating as Gone With the Wind (see the excellent 'Scarlett, Rhett and a Cast of Thousands) but still there is good stuff there, only it might have come off better had the material been given more thought and placed in context.

With regards to Vivien Leigh, not much is actually said. Of course she did have a mental breakdown afterwards but Staggs completely misses how dangerously close she came into the psyche of Blanche in real life, or why. Likewise no assessment of Brando, and his interpretation of Stanley other than he might have wanted to bed Leigh (but then, what man wouldn't?) . The book seems to run out of steam after the intial foray into the shooting schedule. Even Tenessee Williams creative role is glossed over.

It seems inevitable the reader will, by the end, finish by sighing 'so what?' I know I did. It's an exhausting and dare I say it, in the end, pointless read. I kind of prefer my stories to have at least a moral to them. In then end it's All About Staggs Desire To Know Everything About Streetcar than anything else.

This is the third of an apparent series. Perhaps Staggs will keep going on a fourth? What next.. Lolita?

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