The Crucible (Penguin Classics)

The Crucible (Penguin Classics)
by Arthur Miller

The Crucible (Penguin Classics)
List Price: $13.00
Our Price: $4.93
You Save: $8.07 (62%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.48 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Arthur Miller
Introduction: Christopher Bigsby
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-03-25
ISBN: 0142437336
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Book Reviews of The Crucible (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: Playing Tituba
Summary: 4 Stars

When I was up at Cambridge back in the olden days when there were only three women's colleges and men's colleges were single sex, I tried my hand at acting and ended up joining an "indie" production of "The Crucible. By "Indie" I mean that it was not produced by either the of the two drama societies the Amateur Dramatic Club and the Mummers, nor by a college drama society. It was instead produced by this second-year student and performed in a church and performed by people who answered an ad in Varsity. That was how I got into it.
I probably got the part of Tituba because I am Chinese and they didn't have a more authentic applicant. I also was a member of the ADC. What we did have was the up and rising freshman actress to play Abigail Proctor. We happened to be reading English at Griton in the same year. She was a much better actress.
But one thing that really struck me when I was reading this play was how it was basically the McCarthy Treason trials and Miller's take on them. I didn't know about the trials first-hand but I was certainly aware that they had happened and the kind of hysteria behind it.
Having said that, I also did not think that Miller was trying to portray Salem, Massachusetts when those trials took place. Gone from the picture in spite of the presence of a minister is any sense of the religious fervor and fear which also played a significant role then. This went beyond orthodox political thinking. I don't think that we ever quite got the crying-out scene right, but I don't think there was all that much guidance either. And actually, looking back now, I am not so sure that the rest of the cast were quite as aware of the McCarthy trials as perhaps they should have been. Certainly they were never mentioned at any rehearsal I ever attended. And the copy we used was not footnoted or anything, nor did it have an introduction.
All this indicates to me that Miller's play did not travel all that well, as is the case with a few others I have read. Not "Death of a Salesman" though.
That little production did all right though. It was also the last time I acted in Cambridge. I didn't figure there were going to be too many opportunities for a not-so-wonderful Chinese actress (of course I didn't think so then) and started working for the newspaper rather more seriously. But I still have the play, and I read it again every so often.

Summary of The Crucible (Penguin Classics)

Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism.

Introduction by Christopher Bigsby

Miller, Arthur Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Books I Read in High School
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ImageThe Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
Back Bay Books; Published: 1976-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: $21.99
Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Thrift Edition) ImageLeaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition (Thrift Edition)
by Walt Whitman
Dover Publications; Published: 2007-02-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.21
Price in other shops: $3.00
Walden ImageWalden
by Henry David Thoreau
Digireads.com; Published: 2005-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.57
Price in other shops: $6.95
Four Major Plays: (Doll's House; Ghosts; Hedda Gabler; and The Master Builder) (Oxford World's Classics) ImageFour Major Plays: (Doll's House; Ghosts; Hedda Gabler; and The Master Builder) (Oxford World's Classics)
by Henrik Ibsen
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.54
Price in other shops: $9.95
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Bloom's Guides) ImageArthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Bloom's Guides)
Chelsea House Publications; Published: 2003-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops: $30.00
Fences (The August Wilson Century Cycle) ImageFences (The August Wilson Century Cycle)
by August Wilson
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2008-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.87
Price in other shops: $25.00
Ethan Frome ImageEthan Frome
by Edith Wharton
Waking Lion Press; Published: 2006-07-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops: $9.95
Caesar and Cleopatra ImageCaesar and Cleopatra
by Bernard George Shaw
IndyPublish; Published: 2009-02-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.99
The Crucible (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Crucible (Penguin Classics)
by Arthur Miller
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.69
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Great Gatsby ImageThe Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $14.00
Similar Books and other products
The Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics)
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Penguin Classics; Published: 2002-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops: $7.00
To Kill a Mockingbird ImageTo Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1988-10-11; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops: $7.99
Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) ImageDeath of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)
by Arthur Miller
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.33
Price in other shops: $13.00
The Crucible (Cliffs Notes) ImageThe Crucible (Cliffs Notes)
by Jennifer L. Scheidt, Denis M. Calandra
Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.40
Price in other shops: $5.99
Their Eyes Were Watching God ImageTheir Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops: $15.99
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) ImageOf Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin; Published: 2002-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.20
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Catcher in the Rye ImageThe Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Back Bay Books; Published: 2001-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: $13.99
The Scarlet Letter ImageThe Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
CreateSpace; Published: 2009-04-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ImageThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
CreateSpace; Published: 2008-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $47.65
The Great Gatsby ImageThe Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories