There was a time when all of Edward Albee's plays were published during or just after their runs. Even lesser known works such as The Lady from Dubuque and Everything in the Garden made it into print. So it is a delight to see that Overlook Press has issued The Play About The Baby in hardcover and will do the same with The Goat in May, 2003. If any American playwright needs to be in print, it is Edward Albee.

The Play About The Baby is Albee in vaudeville mode. The characters -- Man, Woman, Boy and Girl -- inhabit a timeless space where they engage in games of love, loss, pain and memory. The most obvious precursor here is Albee's own Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. However, instead of the hypernaturalism of the earlier play, Albee goes for vaudeville this time. In fact, TPATB's Man and Woman might be George and Martha from Who's Afraid, having left New Carthage and now wandering around dispensing their hard-earned (and often unwanted) wisdom. (Or are Boy and Girl just George and Martha at an earlier phase of their lives? Albee's graceful allusiveness and ambiguity are in full force here). Either way, TPATB's humor, while less caustic than its predecessor's, is just as entertaining and theatrical.

But don't let me mislead you: both plays are scathing in their assessment of human behavior and clear in their demand that human beings look closely at themselves and the world in which they live. Albee is not out to comfort his audience (has he ever been?), but to confront them -- to wake up, take stock and abandon their cozy pipe dreams. Like O'Neill, Albee writes of the deadening illusions men and women wrap themselves in; like Williams he challenges the system of mendacity that rules people's lives.

If you were lucky enough to see The Play About The Baby when it ran Off-Broadway, reading it now will only deepen your appreciation for Albee's artistry. If you are coming to the work for the first time, look forward to a feast of stimulating wit and ideas.

Knute Rocken Young Athelete by Guernsey Van Riper Jr.is an excellent book for kids eleven to fifteen years of age. I would recommend
this book to boys more then girls because of the fact the main charter is a
young man and in the most parts of the book is about Knute as an
athlete. In this book, Knute the main charter, does many breath taking
things. Guernsey Van Riper Jr. gets the reader caught on his hook to
read this book. The events make them want to fall out of their chair.
Knute has a sister Anne who takes him out to the berry patch to gather
berries. On their way back from the berry patch Knute decides that he
wants to go swimming so Anne gives in and joins Knute. Suddenly . I
will leave you hanging. Try to get your hands on this book before it is
gone, Also try to get your hands on some of the other books that Guernsey
Van Riper Jr. has written.

A play in three acts, a very simple setting, and only four characters who live in a small, university town in America: a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. And a "young and innocent" couple, Nick and Honey. They all meet in a room, in Martha and George's house, very late one night, for a nightcap. And then...all hell breaks lose.

The play tears apart both marriages: the middle aged couple, who seem to hate each other and in the end turn out to be much more devoted to each other as it would seem. The young, seemingly perfect couple, who turn out to have lots of problems of their own. In three heart-breaking scenes, using dialogue that cuts like a knife, Edward Albee has written a masterpiece. He manages to give a clear-cut, honest picture of the reality of marriage, the reality of love, and the fears that go hand in hand with love and intimacy. At some point, in act three, Martha talks about her husband- and it's probably one of the best pieces of literature I've read:

"...George who is out somewhere there in the dark...George who is good to me, and whom I revile; who understands me, and whom I push off; who can make me laugh, and I choke it back in my throat; who can hold me, at night, so that it's warm, and whom I will bite so there's blood; who keeps learning the games we play as quickly as I can change the rules; who can make me happy and I do not wish to be happy, and yes I do wish to be happy, George and Martha: sad, sad, sad."

What more can I say? just read the play, and if you get the chance, watch it performed in the theatre, too.

Considered by some to be Albee's masterpiece, Virginia Woolf presents all of the playwright's main themes in this tightly compressed play. In a mere three acts, Albee breeches social as well as physical masochism at its most malevolent while displaying its truth-revealing effects while exposing its subconscious motivations. As for other Albee-eque motifs, there is his presentation of truth verses reality, linguistics aerobics, and, as par, a heavy dose of black humor. Albee remains faithful as a master of literature in that he never lapses into didacticism even when his characters voice personal soliloquies. As an aside, the play does differ from the famous film in that the former takes place within the confides of George and Martha's household, thus keeping their guests, Nick and Honey, as metaphorical prisoners throughout the night. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the play, upon a close reading, is Albee's almost virtuoso execution of symbolism, especially Christian (comparable to Henry James). Highly recommended.

Wow. I never thought I could like a play so much. I had to read this for a class in college, so I admit that I didn't know what I was in for. I would've never thought that I would enjoy reading a play. This is a work of art with every line having meaning and significance.

A quick summary of the story without giving too much away: This is the story about an elderly couple who seem to hate each other with a passion. They're rude, loud, offensive, and insulting. When they invite a younger couple to their house, things quickly start to get out of control, while the elderly couple use their guests as sheilds and pawns in their brutal arguements and such. The story ends with a shocking resolution that will catch you off guard.

The dialogue in this play is so beautifully written. It reads like the way people actually talk. That is why I enjoyed it so much. It also enriched the characters that much more. Edward Albee did a magnificent job of weaving a tale that seems so realistic it's as if we are there at that house on that very night. There are no minor characters; everyone is important in a very significant way. It is refreshing to be able to get to know each character and the hopes, dreams, ambitions, and the conflicts that lie within.

I really enjoyed reading this wonderfully structured play. Much so that I have already read it at least seven times. It is a very easy read. And since it is mostly dialogue, it really doesn't take long to read. You could easily finish it in a day or two if you really put your heart to it. Even if you don't enjoy reading novels, maybe this is the solution. There is no lengthy descriptions of what color the characters' eyes are or what they're wearing. Just good old dialogue that will have you hooked from the very beginning. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is an outstanding play that will forever remain a true classic in American Literature.

...although if you want to argue that it's poetry, I can't stop you. It's hard to believe that English is Nabokov's third language. It's also probably impossible to read the first paragraph without having your curiosity piqued. Try it, if you haven't read it already. I'd go so far as to say it's maybe the best opening I've ever read in a book, besides the one from which I took my name.

People unfamiliar with the work will probably approach it with a certain amount of apprehension. It's really about as far from pornography as you can get, though. The author provides a witty and fairly enlightening essay addressing charges of obscenity as an epilogue. The only real problem I can find with this book is that the writing is a bit too floral in places. Even the keenest of literary minds will most likely falter a bit here.

For readability, Lolita loses one star. This, however, is part of what makes it beautiful: it is no way an ordinary book, one that you can read and be done with in a week. For those desiring a challenge, or a refreshingly original style, Nabokov comes highly recommended.

A brilliant book by what appears to be a brilliant author (this is the first book of Nabokov's I've read). The first thing you have to do is disregard everything you have heard about this being a vulgar, exploiting book. It is not. There is no pornography to be found here - unlike Dostoyevsky who describes the deeds of his villain in detail, Nabokov avoids the cleverly set trap that would surely have made this a much less appealing novel. What it is, and much more so than for example "Romeo and Juliet", is a love story. Granted, it is a story about forbidden love; a middle-aged man desperately in love with a young girl, but it is still a love story.

Let me return once more to Dostoyevsky. I found myself comparing Humbert Humbert to Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment" - a person torn apart by his own conscience, trying to hang on to his sanity by telling himself that he is doing the right thing. And just like Dostoyevsky, Nabokov takes us inside the mind of a criminal, as if he is trying to makle us understand him. And the greatness of Nabokov lies in the fact that he pulls it off. Even though you don't like Humbert - and you most certainly will not - you can begin to understand the reasons behind his behavior. Perhaps this - and the beautiful prose, of course - is the true greatness of Vladimir Nabokov.

Nabokov's genius is even more bewildering when you consider that English is not his first (nor even his second, I think), language and that he moved to America well into his adulthood. This is the only thing by Nabokov I have ever read (but will not be the last unless I die suddenly in the next few days) and his prose is extraordinary. It's direct, biting, and yet as lyrical as poetry. This is a book that can be read many times without loss of richness.

The content of this book is notorious. It is also very touching. It's a perfect tragedy. Now then. Lolita is far from being a sugary sweet angel. She has had sex before, she is manipulative, self-contained, seductive, crass...but so clearly through the voice of Humbert (the older man) you can see how young she is, how horribly abused, and how he is slowly destroying her.

Why would anybody ever want to read such a thing? For two reasons (in my opinion). Firstly, as I mentioned above, because Nabokov is a great artist. Very few books I have read come close to his craftsmanship in terms of stringing words together.

Secondly because abuse happens. People will gain control over others and then not act in their best interests. It happens, it can be horrible, and so it makes sense to examine it as part of the human condition. On the cover of this paperback edition, Vanity Fair claims it is "the greatest love story of all time", which seems a little weird, given that this "love" is completely one-sided and involves assaulting, trapping, manipulating and destroying a young girl.

But don't get the wrong impression. The content is dark, but the mood of the book is surprisingly light; and there are distinct passages and descriptions that are downright beautiful.

There are a lot of books around, but very few of this quality. Really. Read it.

These plays are drenched in the condemnation that we've come to expect from Edward Albee. "The Sandbox" condemns his parents (his mother was more recently condemned in "Three Tall Women"), "The Death of Bessie Smith" condemns the white establishment of the South in the pre-Civil Rights Movement days, and "Fam and Yam" condemns the old order in literature. Albee's world is soaked in doom and filled twice over in hatred for the established order. The only fault is the same one that's been brought against Bob Dylan and Sam Peckinpah -- if the establishment had to go, what's going to replace it?

"The Sandbox" is an excellent play, very strange, thought-provoking and entertaining. If anyone has any interpretations on what it means, e mail me. Also read "The American Dream," which includes all of the same characters in "The Sandbox."

These plays are highly thought provoking and flow very well. Both have odd plots that keep you interested. The obviously stronger of the two, The Zoo Story, combines comedy with drama in a very interesting way. Only four stars because reading the play does not substitute for seeing the play's production with all the interaction.

If you don't like him, you don't get him. Read it again.

After all these years, Edward Albee still remains on top of his game. This play is classic Albee with the trademark sarcasm, biting dialogue, and socially critical themes...but with contemporary sensibilites that help keep the play from feeling old or recycled. It's also one of his funniest plays in quite a while. And, of course, Albee continues to push the envelope by tackling provocative subject matter. While this play doesn't rise to the heights achieved by Who's Afraid of Va. Woolf or Tiny Alice, it certainly ranks up with the top 1/3 of his work. Strongly recommended. A must have for any die-hard Albee fan...and should be on the short-list for any Albee virgins.

Edward Albee's The Play About The Baby, is a wonderfully written masterpiece, that is definitely worth the read. The jokes and witty remarks, that were not catched when viewed on stage, are clearly evident and will keep you entertained for hours. The play is about a younger couple who are madly in love with eachother, and in turn, have a child. Trouble arises, when an older couple steals the baby. Edward Albee's superb writing, turns the plot into an adventure that will leave you begging for more. It is one of the most enjoyable plays that I have read in a long time, and I suggest that you give it a try.

There was a time when all of Edward Albee's plays were published during or just after their runs. Even lesser known works such as The Lady from Dubuque and Everything in the Garden made it into print. So it is a delight to see that Overlook Press has issued The Play About The Baby in hardcover and will do the same with The Goat in May, 2003. If any American playwright needs to be in print, it is Edward Albee.

The Play About The Baby is Albee in vaudeville mode. The characters -- Man, Woman, Boy and Girl -- inhabit a timeless space where they engage in games of love, loss, pain and memory. The most obvious precursor here is Albee's own Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. However, instead of the hypernaturalism of the earlier play, Albee goes for vaudeville this time. In fact, TPATB's Man and Woman might be George and Martha from Who's Afraid, having left New Carthage and now wandering around dispensing their hard-earned (and often unwanted) wisdom. (Or are Boy and Girl just George and Martha at an earlier phase of their lives? Albee's graceful allusiveness and ambiguity are in full force here). Either way, TPATB's humor, while less caustic than its predecessor's, is just as entertaining and theatrical.

But don't let me mislead you: both plays are scathing in their assessment of human behavior and clear in their demand that human beings look closely at themselves and the world in which they live. Albee is not out to comfort his audience (has he ever been?), but to confront them -- to wake up, take stock and abandon their cozy pipe dreams. Like O'Neill, Albee writes of the deadening illusions men and women wrap themselves in; like Williams he challenges the system of mendacity that rules people's lives.

If you were lucky enough to see The Play About The Baby when it ran Off-Broadway, reading it now will only deepen your appreciation for Albee's artistry. If you are coming to the work for the first time, look forward to a feast of stimulating wit and ideas.

I'll cut to the chase. Self-delusion is the title I chose for this review, because anyone who read this and pretended it was a profound eye-opening experience that revealed hard to grapple with truths about the contradictions in traditional theisms will need a ph.d in self-delusion. Albee, disappointingly proves that he has quite an aptitude for self-delusion if he believes as he seems to that this is a competent and wothwhile work. I sincerely believe that my rating of two stars was kind and was a benevolent gesture towards a playwright I have much respect for. Everyone is self-indulgent at times and so in a very Christian manner (Note the irony, uh oh is this indicator too cerebral and tedious? Guess it's because I just got through reading Tiny Alice.) I forgive the otherwise impeccable and inimitable Edward Albee.

This play is rather hard to understand at first (despite Edward Albee's belief that the play is "quite clear), but once you can make some sense of the play, it is absolutely thought-provoking and provocative. The ideas Albee raises about faith, God, and self-delusion go far beyond your standard reading fare.

In TINY ALICE Albee presented a dilemma between belief in God and belief in the Church. The author demanded as much from his audiences as he did from himself in writing TINY ALICE. Albee's audacious comment that the meaning of this play was quite clear without further exposition sounded to me like tongue in cheek.

Key to understanding this play is how the reader interprets the on stage model of the castle. The model is seen as the original and controlling entity while the big castle replica is merely the stage on which the puppet show unwinds. It is the author's unseen character within the model, Tiny Alice, who directs the scripts for Butler, Lawyer, Cardinal and Miss Alice. All must play their roles strictly as written..

Albee viewed the Church's authority as built on a faulty foundation. The Church interprets God but refuses to create God. The Author designs a conspiracy between Butler, Lawyer, Cardinal and Miss Alice to strip Julian, a lay representative of the Church, of his beliefs and soul. Julian believes that the true God exists apart from man's interpretation of God. The Church Cardinal deliberately sacrifices Julian to both gain the offered two billion dollars and rid the church of this heretic. Each character has his/her role to play to shatter the protective shell surrounding Julian's soul. Miss Alice plays the short term, sham bride to Julian. The Butler's role is to falsely befriend Julian. The Lawyer gets to both unmask the Cardinal's sanctity and shoot Julian dead. Albee's view includes revealing the personal greed of the Cardinal in order to unmask the false communal authority that the Church exercises. Albee shows the Church's primary tenet to be the interpretation of God to its lay members.

The reader sees that Butler, Lawyer, Cardinal and Miss Alice are but will-less puppets being dangled by the Author's invisible strings. The only character with free will is Tiny Alice, i.e. Albee. Albee's premise is that to worship a God one must first create one. Julian's attempt to evade this truth first puts him in an asylum and finally gets him a bullet in the stomach. Where is Julian's God as he lies dying, praying to unseen Tiny Alice in the castle model? Albee shows that man's mind is but a tool whose function is to represent; man has no tool to access or to know God directly as Julian had wished to do. Death is the only reality to solve Julian's dilemma . The play ends with the lights in the model castle flickering out as Julian's life is extinguished. The world, both substance and form, is engulfed in total blackness.

A grotesque human triangle in a primitive Southern town...A young boy learning the difficult lessions of manhood...A fateful encounter with his native land and former love...These are [arts of the world of Carson McCullers - a world of the lost, the injured, the eternal strangers at life's feast. Here are brilliant revelations of love and longing, bitter heartbreak and occasional happiness - tales that probe the very heart of our lives. It was a good story. she was not a very good person - nor was he. He a sponge who only cared about himself and she was a niggerdly woman, although the town really needed her.

Carson McCullers is a wonderfully compassionate author and this novel showcases the best of her abilities.

I bought this book because The Sandbox came highly recommended to me. I also bought it because of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?. Albee's introduction to these three plays was insightful and entertaining. Anything I know about Albee came from these pages. These are his first three real plays. The Zoo Story is the reason to own this book. Done in 1958, this one seems ahead of it's time. With the exception of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, this could easily be his finest work of art. It involves a conversation between two men in Central Park, one of the participants is a reluctant listener to the mad ramblings of the other. What begins as an odd, unstable talk soon turns dangerous for both men. It is a danger that at first seems intangible, but becomes an overwhelming presence...the focal point, if you will. The dialogue is masterful. Albee's uncanny ability to shed brilliant light into the darkest corners of the human mind will likely lead you to wonder what demons lurk in the author's own mind. There is a genius and readability here that most playwrites will strive for over the span of their entire careers and never even approach. It's that good & to say more would ruin the story. The Death Of Bessie Smith drifts easily above an undercurrent of racism, pettiness, disappointment & futility. The actual events surrounding the death of the blues singer inspired this disturbing play. It is not a pretty thing to behold. But its subject matter is a very real scar upon the face of American history. As a reader, you will become as frustrated with the inability to offer a helping hand as does the intern. Again, the dialogue is dead on. It's a very good play, though short of the greatness Zoo Story so easily achieves. The Sandbox was a 14 minute play that wasn't even worth that much of my time. The characters were lifted from Albee's The American Dream. The symbolism may be very rich here, but I think I prefer the characters where they were originally intended. It's too short, somewhat incomplete. The Sandbox is the major flaw here. Mercifully, it's too short to undo what the rest of the book meticulously created. All in all, this is a wonderful book that I highly recommend for different reasons than the ones that led me to it.

Excellent play. One of the best I have ever read