The Women.

The Women.
by Clare Boothe Luce, Clare Boothe Luce

The Women.
List Price: $8.00
Our Price: $7.49
You Save: $0.51 (6%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.34 (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: Clare Boothe Luce
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-01
ISBN: 0822212706
Number of pages: 72
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Book Reviews of The Women.

Book Review: An Acid-Etched Classic Of Its Kind
Summary: 5 Stars

Although she had a significant literary and later political career, in theatrical circles Clare Boothe Luce is best recalled for THE WOMEN, a play that opened in New York in 1936 with an all-female cast. Critics were not enthusiastic, but the show was a huge hit with audiences, racking up over six hundred performances in its initial run and going on to a wildly successful tour--something almost unheard of for a non-musical. Directed by George Cukor and starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, the 1939 film version was a legendary smash, and the play has been twice revived on Broadway and performed numerous times in regional, academic, and community theatre.

The play concerns Mary Haines, a wealthy and happily married socialite who is friends with Sylvia Fowler--a poisonous gossip who discovers that Mary's husband is having a torrid affair with sexy shop girl Crystal Allen. Mary takes her mother's advice and ignores the affair, hoping it will blow over; Sylvia, however, explodes it into a front-page scandal, and divorce is the result. Along the way we receive portraits of the women of the era: wealthy women, titled women, clerks, secretaries, models, maids, cooks, and, of course, wives, some happy, some unhappy. One divorce follows another; one scandal errupts after another.

THE WOMEN was written in a era in which it was assumed that a woman's only real satisfaction was marriage to a successful man, and it reflects the attitude of the day. Unlike the celebrated film, which focused on acid comedy, the play is as much drama as comedy, moving at a fast clip and taking pot shots at virtually every female stereotype imaginable. It is wickedly funny, yes, but it is also a surprisingly effective argument for feminism in its portrait of a distinctly anti-feministic society.

At some point in the 1960s Luce updated the play slightly, removing many distinctly 1930s references and replacing them with then-contemporary ones. This was a mistake, for the play works best as a period piece, a sharp gaze into what it was like to be a woman in the United States of the late 1930s. Fun to read but best seen in performance, it is a classic of its kind. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

United States Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in United States Books
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in America ImageTheir Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in America
by Eliz Brown Guillory
Praeger; Published: 1990-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
PLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATER ImagePLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATER
by Judson L. Jerome
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1970-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $18.50
Differences in the Dark ImageDifferences in the Dark
by Michael T. Gilmore
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops: $45.00
Acting Gay ImageActing Gay
by John M. Clum
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $60.66
Price in other shops: $75.00
Absurd, Black and Comic Sketches (Drama) ImageAbsurd, 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) ImageThe 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)) ImageThe Glass Menagerie (Modern Classics (Penguin))
by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Books; Published: 2009-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.02
Price in other shops: $12.00
An Enemy of the People (Penguin Plays) ImageAn 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: $12.00
Five O'Clock Angel ImageFive O'Clock Angel
by Tennessee Williams
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Shakespeare ImageShakespeare
by Michael Wood
Basic Books; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: $17.95
Similar Books and other products
Six Plays by Lillian Hellman ImageSix Plays by Lillian Hellman
by Lillian Hellman
Vintage; Published: 1979-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.27
Price in other shops: $17.95
Four Plays: Come Back Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Black Cat Books) ImageFour Plays: Come Back Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Black Cat Books)
by William Inge
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Children's Hour - Acting Edition ImageThe Children's Hour - Acting Edition
by Lillian Hellman
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1953-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops: $8.00
Essential Literary Terms: A Norton Guide with Exercises. ImageEssential Literary Terms: A Norton Guide with Exercises.
by Sharon Hamilton
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2006-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Long Day's Journey into Night ImageLong Day's Journey into Night
by Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops: $12.95
You Can't Take it With You. ImageYou Can't Take it With You.
by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, George S. Kaufman
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1998-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.28
Price in other shops: $8.00
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories ImageThe Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories
by Carson McCullers
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.17
Price in other shops: $7.95
Trestle At Pope Lick Creek ImageTrestle At Pope Lick Creek
by Naomi Wallace
Broadway Play Pub; Published: 2000-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress ImageFive Women Wearing the Same Dress
by Alan Ball, Alan Ball
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1998-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
The Women (Keepcase) ImageThe Women (Keepcase)
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops: $19.98
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories