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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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Originally published in 1914.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Tennessee Williams' classic drama studies the emotional disintegration of a Southern woman whose last chance for happiness is destroyed by her vindictive brother-in-law. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (121)

Five stars for this American classic
I loved it.I bought it about two weeks ago because I was going to see the play at my university with a friend.That production, unfortuntately, wasn't that great, and the Hollywood Brando version was much better, but Tennessee's script is so incredibly creative and complete.Read the play first if you can!

Sick! Sick! Sick!
"STELLA!" This was probably the most memorable line of this movie which was not, to state it diplomatically, one of Tennessee Williams' best works. Marlon Brando was at his worst in acting, as was the case with Vivian Leigh. The French Quarter of New Orleans never looked worse, and the story-about a school teacher who had an illicit affair with one of her students- was also sick. I saw it once and regretted having done so. For many reasons it's far from being recommendable.

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

This is another classic from my high school days that seems wasted on youth. How can a fifteen-year-old in prep school appreciate the desperation and human frailty of Blanche DuBois? Or the dichotomy inherent in Stanley Kowalski's passionate brutality?

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BLANCHE: What you are talking about is brutal desire--just--Desire!--the name of that rattle-trap street-car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another...
STELLA: Haven't you ever ridden on that street-car?
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Many will have seen either the stage or film versions of Streetcar, but reading through Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play allows for the depression to really set in. Readers may even recognize qualities in friends and family members approximating those of alcoholism or domestic violence.

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BLANCHE: A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a brand new outlook on life!
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There are so many great dialogue exchanges here, outside of the classic "kindness of strangers" quote. I'll snip a few of my favorites.

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MITCH: You ought to lay off his liquor. He says you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat!
BLANCHE: What a fantastic statement! Fantastic of him to say it, fantastic of you to repeat it!
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The abusive domestic relationship seemed a common theme in mid-20th Century America; witness both Streetcar and The Honeymooners. "One of these days...POW! Right in the kisser! One of these days Alice, straight to the Moon!"

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STANLEY: When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it.
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Very easy to get through this in a sitting or two. Very hard not to be emotionally moved, even if the dénouement, vis-a-vis Stanley and Blanche, was not obvious to me after that first reading many years ago.

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BLANCHE: Don't you just love these long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour--but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands--and who knows what to do with it?
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Postscript: My own copy is the mid-80s Signet printing, which includes a 4-page Introduction by the author.

Abusive man alert
I'm not generally impressed with plays and movies of this era, as they portray a time when it was considered acceptable for men to treat women as property. Women endured physical as well as emotional and psychological violence, without a inkling that something may be wrong about that. When Blanche encourages Stella to leave Stanley after he hits her after the poker game, I agreed very firmly with her. I was amazed that Stella returns, and that she still stays with him after what he does to Blanche near the end of the play. Blanche is written as flighty and slutty and her final fate is galling because I believe she's the only character in the play with a lick of sense. I found myself reading this quite quickly because I just wanted it over with. The whole thing repulsed me.

One of the best 20th century plays
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of Tennessee Williams' signature plays that has propelled his reputation and made him into a household name. The play deals with a culture clash between two iconic characters, Blanche DuBois, a fading relic of the Old South, and Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban working class. Their gender and ethnic differences also feature prominently, and are a source of lot of tension throughout the play. Setting the play in New Orleans adds to the colorfulness of characters and situations, and the title of the play is a reference to a particular tram line in that city. All of the characters in this play are very developed, and their oversized passions and outbursts are extremely entertaining to follow. The play has a quality of a train wreck, and we are simultaneously attracted to the scenes and appalled by their over-the-top shenanigans. The play appears as fresh as when it was originally written over sixty years ago, and reading or watching it is a pleasure. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is beautiful! A Signed Limited Edition (personally signed by Tennessee Williams died 1983) considered the most gorgeous books of Franklin Library Editions. Each volume is bound in beautiful, plush full leather, with all the Franklin fineries of 22-karat gilt lettering, page edge gilt covering, satin end page, and satin ribbon bookmark. Each book has the author's signature, which is protected with an unattached tissue insert. Unread Mint Condition except for top gilt gold discolored by dust. Franklin guarantees signature. Notes from Editors booklets included. This book Contains the Following PlaysThe Glass MenagerieA Streetcar Named DesireCamino RealCat on a Hot Tin RoofSweet Bird of YouthThe Night of the Iguana ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
In Touring Tennessee, Ridley Wills II recaptures the romance of travel by presenting the best from his collection of more than thirteen thousand Tennessee postcards. With more than six hundred images from the Volunteer State’s colorful past, Touring Tennessee captures the cultural spirit of a golden era of American correspondence and engages readers with amusing commentary, history, and insight concerning the rhythm of life in early twentieth-century Tennessee. ... Read more