Books by Arthur Miller

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.

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural communityA Penguin Classic   I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history, Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria.   In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violen

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft—and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch-hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can.A drama of emotional power and impact —New York Post

Read more less

Book SynopsisDr. Stockmann attempts to expose a water pollution scandal in his home town which is about to establish itself as a spa. When his brother, the mayor, conspires with local politicians and the newspaper to suppress the story, Stockmann appeals to the public meeting—only to be shouted down and reviled as 'an enemy of the people'. Ibsen's explosive play reveals his distrust of politicians and the blindly held prejudices of the 'solid majority'.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisProduced in May 1998 in New York and starring Peter Falk, Mr. Peters' Connections takes place, in Miller's own words, in that suspended state of consciousness when the mind is freed to roam from real memories to conjectures, from trivialities to tragic insights, from terror of death to glorying in one's being alive. Within the confines of his mind, Mr. Peters interacts with the living members of his family and his long-deceased brother and lover, as well as the imaginary Adele, a black bag lady, who is a figment of Peters' imagination and one of Miller's most original characters. A work of rare honesty and dignity (Fintan O'Toole, New York Daily News), Mr. Peters' Connections uncoils with ferocious, life-affirming intensity.

Read more less

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''.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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.

Read more less

Book SynopsisArthur Miller’s penultimate play, Resurrection Blues, is a darkly comic satirical allegory that poses the question: What would happen if Christ were to appear in the world today? In an unidentified Latin American country, General Felix Barriaux has captured an elusive revolutionary leader. The rebel, known by various names, is rumored to have performed miracles throughout the countryside. The General plans to crucify the mysterious man, and the exclusive television rights to the twenty-four-hour reality-TV eventhave been sold to an American network for $25 million. An allegory that asserts the interconnectedness of our actions and each person’s culpability in world events, Resurrection Blues is a comedic and tragic satire of precarious morals in our media-saturated age.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Penguin ClassicWhen 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 labeled 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. This edition includes Arthur Miller’s preface and an introduction by John Guare.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the&

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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.

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less