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107 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Dramatists Play Service, 1998

The Glorious Bird's iconic melodrama
This is probably the most famous piece of literature from the US that I hadn'd read yet, until now. Nor watched as a play or movie. And still I seemed to know everything about it. Having just read Gore Vidal's memoirs, where he calls TW the 'glorious bird', I was motivated to finally get acquainted with the streetcar. What fun. It is Gone with the Wind updated for the 20th century. It is the ...

A House Not Meant to Stand: A Gothic Comedy (New Directions Paperbook)
Tennessee Williams

New Directions, 2008

The spellbinding last full-length play produced during the author's lifetime is now published for the first time. Christmas 1982: Cornelius and Bella McCorkle of Pascagoula, Mississippi, return home one midnight in a thunderstorm from the Memphis funeral of their older son to a house and a life literally falling apart—daughter Joanie is in an insane asylum and their younger son Charlie is upstairs having sex with his pregnant, holy-roller ...

Collected Stories (A New Directions Book)

6 reviews
Tennessee Williams

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1994

THE REAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HIS ART AND LIFE
During his career as one of America's most distinguished playwrights (The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, A Strretcar Named Desire), Tennessee Williams also produced four volumes of short stories. The contents of these volumes are combined with Williams's unpublished stories. As Gore Vidal, the author of the introduction, notes these stories are "the real autobiography of Williams's ...

Notebooks

6 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Yale University Press, 2007

An Incredible Look into the Mind of a Literary Genius
Margaret Bradham Thornton is to be commended for compiling Tennessee Williams' journals with such painstaking attention to detail, in-depth analysis and thorough research. Her efforts afford the reader an amazing, unique glimpse into the life of an American literary giant -- a man whose plays, including The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire, have become ...

A Streetcar Named Desire

2 reviews
Tennessee Williams

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004

The Kindness Of Strangers
When I was 13 I unearthed two pieces of interesting horror from digging around in the family secrets. This is what we learn at 13. That box we look to open in knowing who we are, find partially locked by time and hands we cannot know, we search for answers we often cannot handle learning. Pandora. The first revelation was my mom's "first marriage" and the subsequent re-making of her in my mind ...

The Glass Menagerie

127 reviews
Tennessee Williams

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1999

Superb, Heartfelt Classic
This classic tale by Tennessee Williams captures the reader's emotions by so forcefully displaying those of its main characters. This is a story of longing and frustration, set in a frustrating time (The Great Depression). The story is narrated by Tom, who hates his factory job and desires to run to sea, but is the main support for his mother Amanda and sister Laura. The matriarchal Amanda ...

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1 review
Tennessee Williams

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2004

Misery
Ok, so it is an American Classic. None-the-less, it is still a story about a family of mean, miserable people. If you like that kinda think then read it. Williams has some great dialogue & vivid characters. Still, can there be at least one good person in the story??

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

29 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Signet, 1958

Genius!
I believe Tennesee Williams is the most versatile modern playwright who truly exemplifies the dysfuctionality of family morals. The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are indeed his masterpieces. I found Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to be my most favorite. The characters were memorable (who can forget Margaret "aka Maggie The Cat," Brick, Big Daddy, and Big Mama?) and the ...

Tennessee Williams: Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America)

7 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Library of America, 2000

Am I allowed to review a review?
I, for one, worship the pulp Tennesse Williams typed upon, but I think Mark E. Baxter's review below might just give Tenn himself a run for his money when it comes to audaciously witty, ironic, shocking, and ultimately moving writing. At the very least, Williams (a man who was once seen at a production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" cackling "Haha, she's off to the nuthouse now!" as the curtain ...

Tennessee Williams: Plays 1937-1955 (Library of America)

6 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Library of America, 2000

A Wonderful Book to Own, to Treasure
The new Library of America volume "Tennessee Williams: Plays, 1937-1955" is the first of two volumes. (The second volume covers the plays from 1957 to 1980.) This is a magnificent book, beautifully printed and bound. It is comprehensive (over 1000 pages) and has extensive notes and a complete chronology of Williams's life. Several of the plays are printed with commentaries by Tennessee ...

Four Plays: Summer and Smoke; Orpheus Descending; Suddenly Last Summer; Period of Adjustment (Signet Classics)

5 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Signet Classics, 1976

The best of the best
Tennesse Williams has become of my favorite authors, partially due to this book. I have long been a fan of the movie adaptations of his work, but they come nowhere near to the superb quality of the written word. In all of his plays you can get a sense of what the characters are feeling. In most cases those feelings are angst and despair. "Suddenly Last Summer" is by far the best play in ...

The Night of the Iguana

4 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1998

Williams' treatise on love and shame
"Night of the Iguana" is a Tennessee Williams play unlike any other. Set at a Mexican hotel in the early 1940's, the drama presents several character portraits of searing intensity. The minister Shannon -- tortured with self-loathing over his inability to control his sexual appetite -- has abandoned a tour bus he has been leading and has come to stay with an old friend, Maxine. Shannon is ...

Summer and Smoke.

3 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Dramatists Play Service, 1998

Beautiful, lyrical, haunting
This play was originally a failure when it was produced on Broadway. It was not until the 1952 Circle in the Square production directed by Jose Quintero and starring Geraldine Page (who also played the part to perfection in the 1962 film version) that the show became a success. The original production must have been poorly done, because the play is a masterpiece even when one simply reads ...

The Traveling Companion & Other Plays (New Directions Paperbook)
Tennessee Williams

New Directions, 2008

12 previously uncollected experimental shorter plays: The Chalky White Substance • The Day on Which a Man Dies (An Occidental Noh Play) • A Cavalier for Milady • The Pronoun "I" • The Remarkable Rooming House of Mme. LeMonde • Kirche, Küche, Kinder (An Outrage for the Stage) • Green Eyes • The Parade • The One Exception • Sunburst • Will Mr. Merriwether Return from Memphis? • The Traveling ...

Sweet Bird of Youth

2 reviews
Tennessee Williams

New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1972

Like the rest of Williams' writings- absolutely brilliant
Don't see the movie instead of reading the play, in fact, don't see the movie at all, because it is TERRIBLE. It changes the ending completely, and lacks the overall spirit of the play. With "Sweet Bird of Youth," Williams has created something touching and brilliant. If you like Williams' other plays, you will like this, but if not, you won't. A wonderful dramatic landmark. Amazing.

Memoirs

6 reviews
Tennessee Williams

New Directions, 2006

Dear, Troubled Genius.
This book shocked and disappointed many upon its release in 1975. Many were expecting something resembling a predictable literary auto-biography, though, with the authors notorious history and reputation, should have been prepared for what they got instead. This is a fascinating book about and by the man many called genius, the author of "A Streetcar Named Desire", "The Glass Menagerie", "Cat On ...

Four Plays (Signet Classics)
Tennessee Williams

Signet Classics, 2003

Here are four plays by one of the giants of 20th-century American drama...

Three By Tennessee

2 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Signet Classics, 2003

Classic
It's amazing how well the works of Mr. Williams have held up after all these years. Then again, when you write classics that's what they're supposed to do. While all these plays are great, NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is by far his best. My favorite line: "Oh,God, can we please stop now." I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea. But the most remarkable thing about Mr. William's plays are that, while ...

Suddenly Last Summer.

4 reviews
Tennessee Williams

Dramatists Play Service, 1998

Groundbreaking and Breathtaking!
I am a playwrite, and this is my favorite play. Most people asssume Tennessee Willams' master opus to be 'A Streetcar Named Desire', or perhaps even 'The Glass Menagerie'.....But even these masterpieces seem overdone and overbearing when compared to this short, seemingly insignificant little play. Here's the story: Catherine Holly, a beautiful and outspoken young woman, has been stuck in an ...

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