Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer

Fiction & Literature, Drama, American, Nonfiction, Entertainment, Literary
Cover of the book Orpheus Descending and Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams, New Directions
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Tennessee Williams ISBN: 9780811225328
Publisher: New Directions Publication: December 11, 2012
Imprint: New Directions Language: English
Author: Tennessee Williams
ISBN: 9780811225328
Publisher: New Directions
Publication: December 11, 2012
Imprint: New Directions
Language: English

Two of Tennessee Williams's most revered dramas in a single paperback edition for the first time.

Orpheus Descending is a love story, a plea for spiritual and artistic freedom, as well as a portrait of racism and intolerance. When charismatic drifter Valentine Xavier arrives in a Mississippi Delta town with his guitar and snakeskin jacket, he becomes a trigger for hatred and a magnet for three outcast souls: storekeeper Lady Torrance, “lewd vagrant” Carol Cutrere, and religious visionary Vee Talbot.

Suddenly Last Summer, described by its author as a “short morality play,” has become one of his most notorious works due in no small part to the film version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift that shocked audiences in 1959. A menacing tale of madness, jealousy, and denial,the horrors in Suddenly Last Summer build to a heart-stopping conclusion.

With perceptive new introductions by playwright Martin Sherman — he reframes Orpheus Descending in a political context and explores the psychology and sensationalism surrounding Suddenly Last Summer — this volume also offers Williams’s related essay, “The Past, the Present, and the Perhaps,” and a chronology of the playwright’s life and works.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Two of Tennessee Williams's most revered dramas in a single paperback edition for the first time.

Orpheus Descending is a love story, a plea for spiritual and artistic freedom, as well as a portrait of racism and intolerance. When charismatic drifter Valentine Xavier arrives in a Mississippi Delta town with his guitar and snakeskin jacket, he becomes a trigger for hatred and a magnet for three outcast souls: storekeeper Lady Torrance, “lewd vagrant” Carol Cutrere, and religious visionary Vee Talbot.

Suddenly Last Summer, described by its author as a “short morality play,” has become one of his most notorious works due in no small part to the film version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift that shocked audiences in 1959. A menacing tale of madness, jealousy, and denial,the horrors in Suddenly Last Summer build to a heart-stopping conclusion.

With perceptive new introductions by playwright Martin Sherman — he reframes Orpheus Descending in a political context and explores the psychology and sensationalism surrounding Suddenly Last Summer — this volume also offers Williams’s related essay, “The Past, the Present, and the Perhaps,” and a chronology of the playwright’s life and works.

More books from New Directions

Cover of the book I Am the Brother of XX by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Clothes for a Summer Hotel: Play by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book No Longer Human by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book A Cup of Rage by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Pereira Maintains by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Laziness in the Fertile Valley by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Curriculum Vitae: A Volume of Autobiography by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book The Crack-Up by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Thoughts on the East (New Directions Bibelot) by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book A House Not Meant to Stand: A Gothic Comedy by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Mr. Kafka: And Other Tales from the Time of the Cult by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book All the Conspirators by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Promise at Dawn by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Fairy Tales: Dramolettes by Tennessee Williams
Cover of the book Borges at Eighty: Conversations by Tennessee Williams
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy