The Iceman Cometh
by Eugene O'Neill
List Price:
Our Price: $7.60
You Save: $5.35 (41%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.95 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Eugene O'NeillForeword: Harold Bloom
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-28
ISBN: 0300117434
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Yale University Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780300117431
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Iceman Cometh
Book Review: THE DREAMS COMETH
Summary: 5 Stars
The dreams (and illusions) of the very wretched of the earth are different from those of you and I. Or are they? This is the true subject matter of Eugene O'Neill fine play. Very little action, lots of drinking, lots of dreaming, lots philosophizing by the bedraggled cast of characters in a low down gin mill to boot do not sound like the makings of a great American play. But they are. The narrowly focused story line turns into a microcosm of the underside of American society in the early part of the 20th century. These are not the `robber barons' of historic fame but the jetsam of the early stages of industrial society. These are the ones that cannot cope, for one reason or another, with the new ways and seek solace and comfort in the back streets of urban society. For lack of a better word these are what Karl Marx called the lumpen proletariat. Not Jean Genet's hardened rough and ready sailors, pimps and male prostitutes but on the margins nevertheless. In neither case will they will not make the revolution. But the have their dreams too and O'Neill is there to chronicle them.
Between shots of whiskey the denizens of this small world exhibit all the emotions, contradictions, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of life that the rest of us `normals' have to face. Except, for dramatic effect, these flophouse devotees get their noses rubbed in it by one Harry Hickey- traveling salesman and sport- formerly chief denizen of the `resort' who now has gotten `religion' and wants to spread his newfound `glad tidings'. Spare us from the Hickeys of the world-a little dreaminess and a couple of illusions never hurt anyone. Did they? Although in O'Neill's hands the dialogue is a little stilted and the characters are a little stereotyped (the seemingly obligatory house philosopher, renegade anarchist, token immigrant, day workers, runaway with a hidden past, Irish cop and floosies) and wooden the point he is trying to make gets across just fine. This is a must read on your American drama list.
Summary of The Iceman Cometh
Eugene O?Neill was the first American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He completed The Iceman Cometh in 1939, but he delayed production until after the war, when it enjoyed a long run of performances in 1946 after receiving mixed reviews. Three years after O'Neill's death, Jason Robards starred in a Broadway revival that brought new critical attention to O?Neill?s darkest and most nihilistic play. In the half century since, The Iceman Cometh has gained enormously in stature, and many critics now recognize it as one of the greatest plays in American drama. The Iceman Cometh focuses on a group of alcoholics and misfits who endlessly discuss but never act on their dreams, and Hickey, the traveling salesman determined to strip them of their pipe dreams.
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in Americaby Eliz Brown Guillory
Praeger; Published: 1990-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
PLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATERby Judson L. Jerome
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1970-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Differences in the Darkby Michael T. Gilmore
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Acting Gayby John M. Clum
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $60.66
Price in other shops:
Absurd, Black and Comic Sketches (Drama)by Peter Joucla
Nelson Thornes Ltd; Published: 1991-03; Paperback; Book
The Sorrows of Frederick and Holy Ghosts (An Original harvest book ; HB 355)by Romulus Linney
Harcourt; Published: 1977-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.31
The Glass Menagerie (Modern Classics (Penguin))by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Books; Published: 2009-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.56
Price in other shops:
An Enemy of the People (Penguin Plays)by Henrik Ibsen
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
Five O'Clock Angelby Tennessee Williams
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Shakespeareby Michael Wood
Basic Books; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Oleannaby David Mamet
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1998-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.18
Price in other shops:
Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West)by Sam Shepard
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 1984-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.94
Price in other shops:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roofby Tennessee Williams
New Directions; Published: 2004-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.82
Price in other shops:
Glengarry Glen Ross: A Playby David Mamet
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.18
Price in other shops:
A Moon for the Misbegottenby Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.36
Price in other shops:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?by Edward Albee
Signet; Published: 1983-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
Three Plays: Desire Under The Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electraby Eugene O'Neill
Vintage; Published: 1995-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?by Edward Albee
NAL Trade; Published: 2006-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.85
Price in other shops:
A Streetcar Named Desire (New Directions Paperbook)by Tennessee Williams
New Directions; Published: 2004-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
Long Day's Journey into Nightby Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops: