Book picks similar to
Eight Plays by Arthur Schnitzler
classics
ebook
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recommended-by-harold-bloom
The Second Mrs Tanqueray
Arthur Wing Pinero - 1893
Controversial but successful on the London stage, this play reveals the fate of a "notorious woman" in Victorian England.
The Graduate
Terry Johnson - 2000
It premiered in April 2000 at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, starring Kathleen Turner as Mrs RobinsonCalifornia in the 60s. Benjamin's got excellent grades, very proud parents and, since he helped Mrs Robinson with her zipper, a fine future behind him… A cult novel, a classic film, a quintessential hit of the 60s, now Benjamin's disastrous sexual odyssey is brought vividly to life in this world stage premiere production."Terry Johnson is that rare creature: a moralist with wit. He writes with responsible gaiety" (Guardian)
Miss Julie and The Stronger
August Strindberg - 1977
There is the very questionable theme in these days of the relationship between masters and servants, which this play tends to undermine.' Lord Cromer, who banned performances of Miss Julie from the English stage in October 1925It's Midsummer's Eve in the kitchen of a nobleman's house and his haughty daughter Julie flirts and plays with Jean, her father's manservant. But it's a dangerous game and once she has been seduced by him he holds the upper hand.Miss Julie, Strindberg's mighty play on power, sex and class is presented here in a coruscating version by Frank McGuinness.
Children of the Sun
Maxim Gorky - 1905
A prophetic play from pre-Revolutionary Russia.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque - 1929
With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.
Freshwater: A Comedy
Virginia Woolf - 1935
It was first performed at Vanessa Bell's London studio in 1935 as one of Bloomsbury's theatrical evenings and later, in New York, in a star-studded French production. Edited and with a Preface by Lucio P. Ruotolo; drawings by Edward Gorey.
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Alexandre Shirvanzade - 1905
She is in love with young Artashes Otaryan, son of Elizbarov's late companion. Soon Artashes reveals to her the secret that his family has kept for years -- Elizbarov had stolen the fortune of his former companion; as a proof he presents to her Elizbarov's letters to his father. Margarita is appalled by her father's loss of honor, and is torn between her duty as a daughter and her sense of right and wrong.
Woodcutters
Thomas Bernhard - 1984
The guest of honor, an actor from the Burgtheater, is late. As the other guests wait impatiently, they are seen through the critical eye of the narrator, who begins a silent but frenzied, sometimes maniacal, and often ambivalent tirade against these former friends, most of whom were brought together by the woman whom they had buried that day. Reflections on Joana's life and suicide are mixed with these denunciations until the famous actor arrives, bringing a culmination to the evening for which the narrator had not even thought to hope."Mr. Bernhard's portrait of a society in dissolution has a Scandinavian darkness reminiscent of Ibsen and Strindberg, but it is filtered through with a minimalist prose. . . . Woodcutters offers an unusually strange, intense, engrossing literary experience."—Mark Anderson, New York Times Book Review"Musical, dramatic and set in Vienna, Woodcutters. . . .resembles a Strauss operetta with a libretto by Beckett."—Joseph Costes, Chicago Tribune"Thomas Bernhard, the great pessimist-rhapsodist of German literature . . . never compromises, never makes peace with life. . . . Only in the pure, fierce isolation of his art can he get justice."—Michael Feingold, Village Voice"In typical Bernhardian fashion the narrator is moved by hatred and affection for a society that he believes destroys the very artistic genius it purports to glorify. A superb translation."—Library Journal
Arden of Faversham
Anonymous
Its authorship is unknown, although suggestions include Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.Wealthy businessman Arden is convinced his wife Alice is cheating on him. He's right – but he doesn't know the full story. Determined to free herself from her miserable marriage, Alice is in fact plotting to have him murdered. As the assassins close in on their unwitting victim, husband, wife and lover find themselves locked in a deadly game.This edition of Arden of Faversham was published alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of the play in 2014, and features the text edited for the RSC production, and introductions by key members of its creative team.
August: Osage County
Tracy Letts - 2008
When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead, where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uproariously revealed. The three-act, three-and-a-half-hour mammoth of a play combines epic tragedy with black comedy, dramatizing three generations of unfulfilled dreams and leaving not one of its thirteen characters unscathed.