Few plays have explored the byways of the human heart as poignantly and poetically as Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. In this touching audio, we meet the embattled Wingfield family: Amanda—faded southern belle, abandoned wife, dominating mother, who hopes to match her daughter with an eligible “gentleman caller;” Laura—lame and painfully shy, she evades her mother’s schemes and reality by retreating to a world of make-believe; Tom—sole support of the family, he eventually leaves home to become a writer but is forever haunted by the memory of Laura.
Also included on this audio are priceless recordings of Tennessee Williams bringing his own interpretations to the wistful opening monologue and the tragic ending, as well as to his own brilliantly charming poetry and his uproariously wicked short story, The Yellow Bird.
About the Author
Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi, where his grandfather was the episcopal clergyman. When his father, a travelling salesman, moved with his family to St Louis some years later, both he and his sister found it impossible to settle down to city life. He entered college during the Depression and left after a couple of years to take a clerical job in a shoe company. He stayed there for two years, spending the evenings writing. He entered the University of Iowa in 1938 and completed his course, at the same time holding a large number of part-time jobs of great diversity. He received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1940 for his play Battle of Angels, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 and 1955. Among his many other plays Penguin have published The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Summer and Smoke (1948), The Rose Tattoo (1951), Camino Real(1953), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Orpheus Descending (1957), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Period of Adjustment (1960), The Night of the Iguana (1961), The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1963; revised 1964) and Small Craft Warnings (1972). He died in 1983.
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