Books by Arthur Miller

Book SynopsisThe final volume in Methuen Drama''s acclaimed series of work by Arthur Miller who, during his lifetime, was acknowledged as the greatest American dramatist of our age (Evening Standard). Featuring two plays from the 1990s and his final two plays (2002 and 2004), it offers the first ever publication of Miller''s final play, Finishing the Picture. Inspired by his experience during the filming of The Misfits with his then wife Marilyn Monroe, the play was completed and produced at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, just months before the playwright''s death in February 2005.Broken Glass (1994) is set in Brooklyn in 1938 and intertwines a woman''s obsession with the news from Germany that government thugs are smashing Jewish stores, with her strange relationship with her husband. It balances private lives with public morality. . . it is also an amazingly full-blooded piece, bursting with pain and passion. (Daily Telegraph). Mr Peters'' Connections (199

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Book SynopsisBecause it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!In a small tight-knit community, gossip and rumour spread like wildfire, inflaming personal grievances until no-one is safe from accusation and vengeance. The Crucible is Arthur Miller''s classic dramatisation of the witch-hunt and trials that besieged the Puritan community of Salem in 1692. Seen as a chilling parallel to the McCarthyism and repressive culture of fear that gripped America in the 1950s, the play''s timeless relevance and appeal remains as strong as when the play opened on Broadway in 1953.This new edition includes an introduction by Soyica Diggs Colbert, that explores the play''s production history as well as the dramatic, thematic, and academic debates that surround it; a must-have resource for any student exploring <Trade Review[The book has] extensive but not daunting information under headings such as Historical and Social Context, Genres and Themes and Performance History, among other aspects. It’s clearly and accessibly written. * Ink Pellet: The Arts Magazine for Teachers *Table of ContentsChronology Introduction Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts Genre and Themes Play as Performance Production History Academic Debate Behind the scenes – Interview with Set Designer Soutra Gilmore on The Old Vic production of The Crucible, directed by Yaël Farber Further Study The Crucible Notes

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Arthur Miller''s award-winning masterpiece brings the play alive for students whether in the classroom or drama studio. With activities that target exactly the right level plus in-depth biographical and contextual information to deepen students'' understanding of the play, this edition provides comprehensive, relevant and engaging support for 16-18 students. The brand new design ensures that the text and supporting materials are the clearest and most accessible available. Exploring the disintegration of WIlly Loman''s mind and his inevitable drift towards suicide, Arthur Miller''s dramatisation of the failure of the American Dream remains as poignant and relevant today as when it was first published in 1949.

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Book SynopsisListen to the dialogue: no other American dramatist has this feel for the ordinary talk of ordinary people, or the knowledge of what they do. This is more than a writer''s craft, it is a psychological and moral openness to humanity, an act not of imitating, but of sharing. Sunday TimesThis fourth anthology features Arthur Miller''s two early plays, The Golden Years, a historical tragedy about Montezuma''s destruction at the hands of Cortez, and The Man Who Had All the Luck, a fable about human freedom and individual responsibility, are brought together in this volume. It also features two of his contemporary shorter plays, I Can''t Remember Anything and Clara, first presented on a double bill as Danger! Memory. The latter focus on the importance and dangers of remembering the past, while the early plays, written at the time of the Second World War, mark the emergence of a drama in which public issues are rooted in private anxieties and c

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Book SynopsisWith detailed analysis of the text, discussions on themes, historical backgrounds and author biographies, York Notes offers students the best insight into the world of English Literature.Table of Contents Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Text Part 3: Critical Approaches Part 4: Critical History Part 5: Background Further Reading Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisShows how the small city of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations. This is a depiction of innocent men and women destroyed by malicious rumour, and more.

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Book SynopsisArthur Miller''s play A View from the Bridge is a tragic masterpiece of the inexorable unravelling of a man, set in a close-knit Italian-American community in 1950s New York. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it''s a privilege to take in his wife''s cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, straight off the boat from Italy. But, as his niece Catherine begins to fall for one of them, it''s clear that it''s not just, as Eddie claims, that he''s too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong - and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can''t face. Something which threatens the happiness of their whole family.This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by the author and a new foreword by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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Book SynopsisThe greatest American dramatist of our age - Evening Standard In this third volume of collected works, three of Arthur Miller's stage plays from the early 1980s are brought together in a new edition. Expanding on the themes and explorations of his earlier work, this volume also contains an introduction from the playwright himself, as well as an afterword by acclaimed Miller scholar Christopher Bigsby. A sweeping, hard-hitting look at the Great Depression of the 1930s, The American Clock(1982) is a vaudevillian celebration of American resilience and optimism in the face of national crisis, and was later performed on Broadway. Set in an Eastern European capital, The Archbishop''s Ceiling (1984), examines the relationship between four writers, and the erosion of personal integrity during the cold war: a thrilling study of the effects of surveillance and political pressure on an individual''s actions Also included is a revised version of Two-Way MirrorTable of ContentsIntroduction by Arthur Miller The American Clock – 1982 The Archbishop’s Ceiling – 1984 Two-Way Mirror – 1984 Afterword by Christopher Bigsby

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Book SynopsisArthur Miller''s extraordinary masterpiece, Death of a Salesman changed the course of modern theatre, and has lost none of its power as an examination of American life. ''A man is not an orange. You can''t eat the fruit and throw the peel away''Willy Loman is on his last legs. Failing at his job, dismayed at his the failure of his sons, Biff and Happy, to live up to his expectations, and tortured by his jealousy at the success and happiness of his neighbour Charley and his son Bernard, Willy spirals into a well of regret, reminiscence, and A scathing indictment of the ultimate failure of the American dream, and the empty pursuit of wealth and success, is a harrowing journey. In creating Willy Loman, his destructively insecure anti-hero, Miller defined his aim as being ''to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life''.

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Book SynopsisVictor, a New York cop nearing retirement, moves among furniture in the disused attic of a house marked for demolition. Cabinets, desks, a damaged harp, an overstuffed armchair - the relics of a lost life of affluence he''s finally come to sell. But when his brother Walter, who he hasn''t spoken to in years, arrives, the talk stops being just about whether Victor''s been offered a fair price for the furniture, and turns to the price that one and not the other of them paid when their father lost both his fortune and the will to go on ...Fraught, but cut through with humour, The Price is one of Arthur Miller''s finest plays.

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Book SynopsisA reticent personnel manager living with his mother, Mr Newman shares the prejudices of his times and of his neighbours - and neither a Hispanic woman abused outside his window nor the persecution of the Jewish store owner he buys his paper from are any of his business. Until Newman begins wearing glasses, and others begin to mistake him for a Jew.Arthur Miller''s chilling novel displays the same searing moral precision and emotional intensity of his plays, as the intensity of anti-Semitism in 1945 New York mounts, and the prejudices Newman shares begin to turn threateningly against him.

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Book SynopsisHis drama is a piece of expert dramatic construction. Mr. Miller has woven his characters into a tangle of plot that springs naturally out of the circumstances of life today.' NEW YORK TIMESThree years on from the disappearance of his son, successful businessman Joe Keller has made a comfortable life for his family in America's Midwest: despite being accused of supplying defective aircraft equipment in World War 2, he is altogether happy. But, when a shadowy figure from Joe's past returns, his hidden truths are revealed, and the price of the American Dream is laid bare.Miller''s first successful play on Broadway, All My Sons launched his career and established him as one of America's greatest dramatists, also winning him the 1946 Tony Award for Best Author. An incisive indictment of greed, capitalism and self-interest, All My Sons is remembered as one of the playwright's greatest works.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Clare GleitTable of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, social and cultural contexts Genre and themes Play as performance Production history Academic debate Behind the scenes Further study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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Book SynopsisArthur Miller (1915-2005) was arguably the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century. Hist most famous work for the stage includes Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons and A View from the Bridge. Six volumes of his plays and a volume of his theatre essays are published by Methuen Drama.Julie Vatain-Corfdir (volume editor) is Lecturer at the Sorbonne University, Paris. A specialist in English-speaking theatre and translation, she is the author of Translate the Living Letter: English duets on the French Scene (2012). Her other publications include articles on English and American theatre, including the work of Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Thornton Wilder, Tina Howe and Sarah Ruhl), as well as several contributions on the history and practice of theatrical translation. She also translates for the stage.Susan C. W. Abbotson (series editor) is Professor of Dramatic LiteTrade Review[The book has] extensive but not daunting information under headings such as Historical and Social Context, Genres and Themes and Performance History, among other aspects. It’s clearly and accessibly written. * Ink Pellet: The Arts Magazine for Teachers *Table of ContentsChronology Introduction Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts Genre and Themes Play as Performance Production History Academic Debate Behind the scenes –Interview with Director Ivo van Hove on The Young Vic Production of A View from the Bridge Further Study A View from the Bridge Notes

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Book SynopsisIn Joe and Kate Keller's family garden, an apple tree - a memorial to their son Larry, lost in the Second World War - has been torn down by a storm. But his loss is not the only part of the family's past they can't put behind them.

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Book SynopsisThe greatest American dramatist of our age. (Evening Standard)In this collected works, five of Arthur Miller''s most-produced and popular plays are brought together in a new edition, alongside an exclusive introduction by Ivo van Hove, the celebrated contemporary director of Miller''s works.All five plays were written by Miller within a ten-year period which began with his first Broadway hit, All My Sons, in 1947 which led Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times to state that ''theatre has acquired a genuine new talent.'' This was followed in 1949 by his exploration of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman, which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.The Crucible followed in 1953, produced during the McCarthy era and becoming a parable of the witch-hunting practices of a government determined to root-out Communists. A View from the Bridge, originally performed in 1955, concerns the lives of longshoremenTable of Contents1. Introduction by Ivo van Hove 2. Introduction by Arthur Miller 3. All My Sons 4. Death of a Salesman 5. The Crucible 6. A Memory of Two Mondays 7. A View from the Bridge

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Table of Contents Part 1: Induction Part 2: Plot and Action Part 3: Characters Part 4: Key Contexts and Themes Part 5: Language and Structure Part 6: Grade Booster Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisQuentin is a successful lawyer in New York, but inside his head he is struggling with his own sense of guilt and the shadows of his past relationships. One of these an ill-fated marriage to the charming and beautiful Maggie, who went from operating a switchboard to become a self-destructive star - a singer everyone wanted a piece of. With tremendous psychological acuity and depth, and a brilliant, dreamlike structure, After the Fall is a literary masterpiece, drawing on Miller''s own life - the story of a man striving to comprehend his feelings for his friends, family and the women he has loved.

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Book SynopsisIn Vichy France, 1942, a group of men sit outside an office, waiting to be interviewed. The reason they have been pulled off the street and taken there is obvious enough. They are, for the most part, Jews. But how serious an offence this is, and how they are to suffer for it, is not clear, and they hope for the best. But as rumours pass between them of trains full of people locked from the outside and furnaces in Poland, and although they reassure themselves that nothing so monstrous could be true, their panic rises.Arthur Miller''s claustrophobic play of how the inconceivable becomes allowed to pass, Incident at Vichy is one of the most indispensable, moving pieces of art about the Holocaust.

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Book SynopsisA car wreck on the slopes of Mount Morgan puts insurance tycoon Lyman Felt in the hospital. While Lyman recovers, two women meet in the hospital waiting room only to discover that they are both married to him. With his secrets exposed, Lyman tries to justify himself to the two women - the prim, cultured Theo and the restless, ambitious Leah - at the same time hoping to convince himself that he is blameless. Moving between broad farce and delicate tragedy, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan explores the struggle between honesty with others and honesty with oneself.

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary story of the women's orchestra in Auschwitz, originally filmed for television with Vanessa Redgrave, and adapted for the stage by Miller himself. Fania Fénelon, a Parisian singer, is arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. There, she finds herself swept into the orchestra, composed entirely of female prisoners and founded as entertainment for the camp commandants. As long as the orchestra continues to find favour, its members will be spared the gas chambers. But Fania is struggling with the corruption of what she holds most sacred in the world – her music – and the morals of the orchestra members are being ground down every day. They are, quite literally, playing for time. Arthur Miller's stageplay Playing for Time is adapted from the 1980 CBS television film, written by Miller himself, and based on acclaimed musician Fania Fénelon's autobiography The Musicians of Auschwitz. The television film starred Vanessa Redgrave as Fénelon. The stageplay was first staged at 1-Act Theatre, San Francisco, in 1985.Trade Review'Homing in, like many of Miller's other works, on an individual standing alone, and undergoing extreme dilemmas of personal conscience in the face of a system run mad' * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Arthur Miller''s classic tragedy brings the play alive for students whether in the classroom or drama studio. With activities that target exactly the right level plus in-depth biographical and contextual information to deepen students'' understanding of the play, this edition provides comprehensive, relevant and engaging support for 14-16 students. The brand new design ensures that the text and supporting materials are the clearest and most accessible available. Set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible exposes the tensions caused by gossip and rumour within a tight-knit community, where eventually no one is safe from accusation and vengeance. Seen as a parallel to McCarthyism and the fear of communism in 1950s America, the play''s themes of truth, justice, honour, mass hysteria and individuality still resonate with audiences around the world today.

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Arthur Miller''s tragic masterpiece brings the play alive for students whether in the classroom or drama studio. With activities that target exactly the right level plus in-depth biographical and contextual information to deepen students'' understanding of the play, this edition provides comprehensive, relevant and engaging support for 14-16 students. The brand new design ensures that the text and supporting materials are the clearest and most accessible available. Eddie Carbone is at first happy to help his wife''s cousins, newly arrived in Brooklyn, New York, from Italy. However, as his niece begins to fall in love with one of them, family secrets are unearthed, loyalties are challenged, and Eddie himself is forced to play his part in the tragic finale.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams''s A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Arthur Miller.''I have always depended on the kindness of strangers''Fading southern belle Blanche DuBois is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella''s crude, brutish husband Stanley Kowalski. Eventually their violent collision course causes Blanche''s fragile sense of identity to crumble, threatening to destroy her sanity and her one chance of happiness.Tennessee Williams''s steamy and shocking landmark drama, recreated as the immortal film starring Marlon Brando, is one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century.

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Book Synopsis''A beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force'' - Harold Pinter''As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays'' - Louis Auchincloss''Wholly admirable'' - Anthony Burgess______________Arthur Miller''s plays have held the world''s stages for almost half a century. Among them are Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons, which have been read and performed countless times across the world. His memoir, Timebends, shows that the life of the man is as compelling as his plays. With passion, wit and candour, Miller recalls his childhood in Harlem and Brooklyn in the 1920s and the Depression; his successes and failures in the theatre and in Hollywood; the formation of his political beliefs that, two decades later, brought him into confrontations with the House Committee of Un-American Activities; and his later work on behalf of human rights as the pTrade ReviewA book and a half. Arthur Miller is that very rare bird; a truly independent man. His autobiography is a beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force * Harold Pinter *The personality revealed by this fine autobiography is wholly admirable. Miller did more than fracture the American dream and interpret the American nightmare: he dared to enter the fire that surrounded the most potent sexual myth of the century * Anthony Burgess *As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays ... Surely one of the great stories of our time * Louis Auchincloss *Arthur Miller's achievement in this book is to fuse the rhetorical power of his drama with the steely integrity of his life. The result is something pretty close to a masterpiece * Sean French *

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Book Synopsis''The strong must learn to be lonely''When Dr Stockmann discovers that the water in the small Norwegian town in which he is the resident physician has been contaminated, he does what any responsible citizen would do: reports it to the authorities. But Stockmann''s good deed has the potential to ruin the town''s reputation as a popular spa destination, and instead of being hailed as a hero, Stockmann is labelled an enemy of the people. Arthur Miller''s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen''s classic drama is a classic in itself, a penetrating exploration of what happens when the truth comes up against the will of the majority.Trade ReviewMiller has released the anger and scorn of the father of realism * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisDiscover the cinema-novelization of Arthur Miller's 1961 American western film, The Misfits, which was directed by John Huston and went on to be one of the most popular cult films of the 1960s.A story of four lost souls - the beautiful Roslyn who has never belonged to anyone or anything, and three other misfits who roam the open land existing on the little money made from riding in rodeos and rounding up wild horses - who meet in Reno to discover that freedom has its price, and the heart its rules.The Misfits starred Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Cliff. Based on a short story of the same name, originally published in 1957, this cinema novel of the film includes an introduction by Arthur Miller himself.

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Book SynopsisMr. Miller knows his audience he is letting us know, the devil will have his due.' NEW YORK TIMESWhen insurance agent Lyman Felt is hospitalised following a near-fatal car crash, both of his wives show up at his bedside and his duplicitous bigamy is revealed. As his shocked spouses the prim Theo and the assertive Leah reel from this revelation and their husband's hypocrisy, an outrageous question is presented: is marriage actually easier this way?Touching on themes of betrayal, crisis and reconciliation, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan is one of Miller's more controversial works, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1991. This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Thiago Russo, with commentary and notes that explore the play''s production history (including excerpts from an interview with director David Esbjornson) as well as the dramatic, thematic and academic debates that surround it.Table of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, social and cultural contexts Genre and themes Play as performance Production history Academic debate Behind the scenes Further study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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Book SynopsisThe greatest American dramatist of our age - Evening Standard In this second volume of collected works, four of Arthur Miller's stage plays from the sixties and seventies are brought together in a new edition. Taking up the theme of individual responsibility from his earlier work, this volume also contains an introduction from Miller himself, along with two of his screenplays. One of Miller's most personal plays, After the Fall (1964) takes place almost entirely inside the mind of the play''s protagonist, who is often read as a stand-in for the playwright himself, and touches on themes of the Holocaust, McCarthyism and inherited sin. This was followed by Miller''s largely forgotten masterpiece, Incident at Vichy (1964): a prescient examination of the evil that exists in us all, inspired by a real-life incident in France in which a Gentile gave a Jew his identity pass during a check. The Price followed in 1968, a touching and farcical presentTrade ReviewThe greatest American dramatist of our age * Evening Standard *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Arthur Miller After the Fall (1964) Incident at Vichy (1964) The Price (1968) The Creation of the World (1972) The Misfits (1957) Playing for Time (1980)

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Book SynopsisThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dreamA Penguin Classic   Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much. This Penguin Classics edition features aTrade ReviewWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for DramaWinner of the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." —Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." —Time

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Book SynopsisThe first monograph on the work of the American painter Arthur Osver (1912-2006), this publication explores Osver's entire oeuvre, from early urban realism to decades of engagement with abstraction. His long and productive career took him from Chicago to New York to Europe and back, interweaving with the art of his time, and his paintings have been collected and exhibited all over the world. Nevertheless, he remained firmly rooted in the American Midwest, settling in St. Louis to teach and paint from 1960 until his death in 2006. Beautifully designed and printed, this book includes 80 full-color plates of Osver's work throughout his life as well as an illustrated biography and selections from an interview with the artist from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

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Book SynopsisWhy am I trying to become what I don't want to be when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.Willy Loman is an ageing travelling salesman haunted, driven and yet held back by empty dreams of prosperity and success. Justly celebrated as one of the most famous dramatisations of the failure of the American Dream, the play''s moral and political purpose is perfectly counterbalanced by a powerful and moving human drama of a man trying to make his way in the world and of the human flaws that lead to the shattering of his family and of their figurehead.Death of a Salesman is Miller''s tragic masterpiece and considered one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949, the play remains a classic work of literature and drama that is studied and performed around the world.This new edition includes an introduction by Claire Conceison that explores the play''s production history as well as the dramatic, thematicTrade Review[The book has] extensive but not daunting information under headings such as Historical and Social Context, Genres and Themes and Performance History, among other aspects. It’s clearly and accessibly written. * Ink Pellet: The Arts Magazine for Teachers *Table of ContentsChronology Introduction Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts Genre and Themes Play as Performance Production History Academic Debate Behind the scenes – Excerpts from interview with Chinese actor/translator Ying Ruocheng about working with Miller in Beijing in 1983 Further Study Death of a Salesman Notes

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Book SynopsisThe Price is one of the most engrossing and entertaining plays that Miller has ever written. - The New Uork TimesWhen patriarch of the Franz family dies, his two sons return home to dispose of the furniture crammed in his attic: one is a successful surgeon, the other gave up everything to support their father following the Great Depression. As the pair sort through these abandoned belongings, frustrations, secrets and surprise guests are uncovered.With its touching and farcical presentation of American life beyond the Vietnam War and Great Depression, The Price is widely recognised as one of Miller's major works, earning him a Tony Award nomination in 1968.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Yuko Kurahashi, with commentary and notes that explore the play''s production history (including excerpts from interviews with the director and designers of the 2017 Arena Stage production) as well as the dramatic, thematic and academic debates that surround it.Trade ReviewOne of Miller’s best plays: an exploration of our need for sustaining illusions because, as he himself wrote, the truth is too terrible to face ... But what finally makes the play moving is Miller’s honesty in recognising that we are all, to a large extent, the authors of our own lives. * Michael Billington, The Guardian *The Price is one of the most engrossing and entertaining plays that Miller has ever written. It is superbly, even flamboyantly, theatrical ... and Miller holds the interest with the skill of a born story-teller. But, of course, the story itself is over. It is typical of Miller's approach here that nothing does, and nothing possibly could, happen in The Price. The action has ended before the play starts, and we the audience have been brought here to listen to the explanations, to comprehend how these men by the choices of their youth have come to be what they are. * Clive Barnes, The New York Times *Table of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, Social and Cultural Contexts Genre and Themes Play as Performance Production History Academic Debate Behind the Scenes Further Study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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Book SynopsisWhen an essay is due and dreaded exams loom, this title offers students what they need to succeed. It provides chapter-by-chapter analysis, explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols, a review quiz and essay topics. It is suitable for late-night studying and paper writing.

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Book Synopsis"The history is fascinating, as are the insights into the personalities of these great thinkers." —New ScientistTrade Review"Miller is a master at capturing the intersection of creativity and intelligence." -- Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk"A fascinating and an unlikely story…exciting to read as well as informative." -- Gino Segré - Physics World"[Miller's] accessible account should bring this odd couple to a wider readership…His ability to approach the subject from the perspective of both the sciences and the humanities is a great strength." -- Georgina Ferry - Times Literary Supplement"A rewarding account of the intersection of two great minds." -- Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman’s deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity—and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room.By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater. —Brooks Atkinson, The New York TimesSo simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it. —Time

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Book SynopsisIt is Mr. Miller''s notion, potentially a great one, that the Baums'' story can help tell the story of America itself during that traumatic era.'NEW YORK TIMESWhen the stock market crashes, the once-financially comfortable Baum family lose everything and are forced to leave their lofty home in Manhattan to live with relatives in Brooklyn: how can their pride, purpose and artistic endeavours survive such a sudden and shocking reversal of fortune?A sweeping, hard-hitting look at the Great Depression of the 1930s, The American Clock is a vaudevillian celebration of American resilience and optimism in the face of national crisis, and was performed on Broadway in 1980.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Jane K. Dominik, with commentary and notes that explore the play''s production history (including excerpts from interviews with designers of the 1980 Broadway production) as well as the dramatic, thematic and academic debates that surround it.Trade ReviewThis panoramic 1980 play about America during the Great Depression [is] described as “a vaudeville” [and] it shows how the nation’s built-in optimism came up against economic reality ... The play, which combines the texture of despair with a residual hope epitomised in the line “a country can’t just die”, shows just how much the 30s shaped Miller’s artistic imagination. ... It shows [Miller's] enduring capacity to capture the state of a troubled nation. -- Michael Billington * Guardian *The piece serves as a warning from history ... but there’s nothing dusty or dutifully clock-watching about it ... [Miller] billed the show as a “vaudeville”, likened it to a mural – and that gives him a means of pushing out across the nation, giving voice to a chorus of bewilderment, as the banks fail, the bailiffs call, the crops rot, and the air hangs heavy with resentment and revolutionary fervour. Yet swimming amid the tide of acrimony, there’s stoical humour, resilient American optimism and even young romantic love ... [The play feels] eerily up to-the-moment and [serves] as an invaluable reminder of how an economic shock can change a country forever. -- Dominic Cavendish * Daily Telegraph *No 20th-century playwright was more gifted at depicting the downsides of the American dream than Arthur Miller -- Dominic Maxwell * The Times *Frequently magnificent and ... also ... nauseatingly prescient. [The play's] kaleidoscopic vision of an advanced society sleepwalking into an essentially self-inflicted disaster is certainly painfully relevant to Britain’s current interests. ...It’s a powerful, poignant and frequently enlightening journey ... This strange, flawed forgotten play is the most relevant piece of political theatre in town. -- Andrzej Lukowski * Time Out *Table of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, social and cultural contexts Genre and themes Play as performance Production history Academic debate Behind the scenes Further study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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Book SynopsisA gentle, lyrical, Chekhovian evocation of the past, with that special unpretentious charm that special works sometimes have.'NEW YORK TIMESAt an auto-parts warehouse in Brooklyn, life seems frozen in time: as workers of every age commute in, nothing ever seems to change. Newcomer Bert, only 18 years old, hopes to escape this world, earnestly saving his wages for college but can such a dream survive his workplace's haze of hopelessness, despondency and alcoholism?A vivid rendering of life under the Great Depression, A Memory of Two Mondays perfectly captures the anxieties and concerns of the 1930s, autobiographically reflecting Miller's own experience as an 18-year-old in this period.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Stephen Marino, with commentary and notes that explore the play''s production history (including excerpts from an interview with director Rob Roznowski) as well as the dramatic, thematic and academic debates that surround it.Table of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, social and cultural contexts Genre and themes Play as performance Production history Academic debate Behind the scenes Further study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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Book SynopsisMuch like Mr. Miller, Quentin is a witness to alarming public and personal catastrophes: the stock market crash, the Holocaust, the McCarthy witchhunts and the self-destruction of a show business idol to whom he is married.' NEW YORK TIMESHaunted by past romantic failures, Quentin, a New York City Jewish intellectual, retreats into his mind as he debates marrying for a third time: as he revisits past loves and losses, his mind and memory fragments under philosophical questions; are our failures really just our own? Or is possible to hide away from the mistakes of the past?One of Miller's most personal plays, After the Fall takes place almost entirely inside the mind of the play''s protagonist, who is often read as a stand-in for the playwright himself. Touching on themes of the Holocaust, McCarthyism and inherited sin, the play is one of the most discussed within Miller's canon.This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Ramón Espejo-Romero, withTrade ReviewBecause After the Fall takes place entirely in Quentin’s mind, all of us are privy to his abject self-pity, cynicism and self-reproach. By extension - because he is the mythic Everyman - we, too, are guilty. We’ve all been kicked out of Eden. We’re all branded. But like every biblical hero who harbors the dream of salvation, Quentin is not without hope, even in the midst of the Red Scare. He wants to smash the false idols within himself. * LA Times *Table of ContentsCHRONOLOGY COMMENTARY Historical, social and cultural contexts Genre and themes Play as performance Production history Academic debate Behind the scenes Further study PLAY TEXT NOTES

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