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What are readers saying about Williams Tennessee : Streetcar Named Desire (Signet)?
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-20 12:37:04.
(Language: English)
 
Completely blows my mind!!! That's really the only way I know how to put it! How Williams makes such raw and believable characters is beyond all understanding!!! I discovered this play while going on a Brando-kick (he was Stanely in both the Broadway and screen versions). I saw the film and loved it! Of course then I had to read its source. There are some differences in the versions, but the characters come out just as strongly in each! Simply amazing! "STELLA!"
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-29 04:58:09.
(Language: English)
"Streetcar" is an unforgettable tapestry of desire, shame, and disturbing revelations. Taking place in New Orleans, "Streetcar" tells the painful story of aging southern belle Blanche DuBois, her sister Stella, Stella's brutish husband Stanley, and the circle of people who frequent Stella's home. Williams creates an incisive examination of human sexuality and socioeconomic difference. His characters come to life with powerful dialogue; this play is a heartbreaking read. Rent the movie as well - Marlon Brando is Stanley!
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Darlene posted a review at 2010-04-17 02:42:35.
(Language: English)
Think I read it too young as I didn't like it very much.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-16 09:42:32.
(Language: English)
yes! there really IS a streetcar name desire! Saw it in NOLA.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-02-18 02:05:57.
(Language: English)
This is one of the most interesting plays I've ever read. Have you ever read it?
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-23 01:37:16.
(Language: English)
A classic. It is brilliant and really is it dated?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-24 12:52:35.
(Language: English)
De lo mejor de Tennessee Williams y el teatro del siglo XX. Por el manejo de las descripciones del entorno, es facil sentirse en ambiente. La caracterizacion de los personajes es muy buena (aunque no me gusta la de la vendedora mexicana; me parece un poco racista y acartonada). La pelicula que se hizo con Marlon Brando y Vivien Leigh es bastante fiel a la obra, y es un clasico del cine-nunca han hecho un remake-. Puede leerse como una novela.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-20 11:42:04.
(Language: English)
Brute.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-01 02:37:18.
(Language: English)
nice
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-02 11:30:36.
(Language: English)
I am a little unsettled to read a review claiming that 'Stanley, however, rips away her trickery to reveal Blanche's pathetic madness', glorifiying a man who allows his own greed to rupture his wife's relationship with her single familial link.You can say 'madness is pathetic'. I might be more inclined to say 'lack of understanding is pathetic'. I think Williams and I would agree here. Regardless of his moral stance, Williams' writing here is beautiful. This includes the stage directions.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-14 04:29:38.
(Language: English)
It's a classic for a reason. Williams's characters are rich, raw, and complicated. Blanche Dubois, an aging southern belle with no money left to her name, comes to stay with her sister Stella and her brutish husband Stanley. As the characters tangle and the drama unfolds, Blanche's condescension and lies grow thicker. She clings desperately to the illusions she has woven to protect her from her past. Stanley, however, rips away her trickery to reveal Blanche's pathetic madness. This dark work of contemporary theatre can be enjoyed as a book, but is enriched by seeing it performed or performing in it. The lyrical euphony of Williams's dialogue and the deliberate effects used in staging A Streetcar Named Desire make it more than a book. If you are unable to see a performance, the 1951 film adaptation with Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando is superb, but is much more enjoyable if you have all ready read the play. I recommend this play heartily. It is a story you will not forget easily.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-17 06:50:35.
(Language: English)
If I ever get the chance to see this play, I will probably not pass it up because the characters are so well developed and conditioned to their needs and wants. The dialogue is simple and easy to understand (high school level) but the subject matter is mature and complex. Blanche Dubios is the epitomy of a tortured soul who is forced to face reality in her own optimistic way. The ending is really sad, so be sure to have some kleenex handy because Tennessee Williams sure knows how to pluck those chords in the most rigid of hearts.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-25 05:49:51.
(Language: English)
I wanted to read this before I watched it. It's my introduction to Tennessee Williams, though I know some of his dialogue, having heard it quoted many times. This was a quick read and a surprisingly good one. Some of Blanche's language is dated, but the story holds up much better than I expected. The only other place I think this could have been set and worked is Savannah -- but New Orleans is better suited for something over the top. The pace of the play is brisk; the dialogue delicious, especially when recited with a drawl. Now, to watch the film, the 1951 version. But I'm having trouble imagining Karl Malden as Mitch.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-09-19 11:31:27.
(Language: English)
One of my favorite reads. Perfect!
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-11 01:25:49.
(Language: English)
The play was a good one when I read it while in college. Still I missed some of Williams' points. I started loving it two years ago when I saw the Egyptian movie "The Desire" based on it. It was Mohammad Khan's version where I cried for Blanche. Nadia El Gendy did the role terrificly good. Every one in the movie was so good.. Elham Shahin the Sister and Yasser Galal "Kowalski" who was so good that I smelled his sweat Wished there is a version of the movie with English subtitles so that all can watch it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-16 08:49:33.
(Language: English)
Another one I read in high school. I couldn't appreciate the various conflicts in the book at the time. It took the movie to make me see the sad situation of the Dubois sisters. This movie and MButterfly have two of the saddest endings in movies.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-08-03 11:54:16.
(Language: English)
Although the ending is good, it doesn't build madness that well, as madness in this work is in the middle of common lies that any person can say (thus does not mean a whole hearted belief) and the sounds around it. Regardless, imagining the stage directions and the sounds of this play is very entertaining, and its a good read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-12 11:07:41.
(Language: English)
oooooooooooooooooooooohh! word desert me when it comes to how much i am attracted to stanley kowalski!!!!! the character of blanche dubois is definitely overrated, though! sure, she's interesting, but who's really interested in that old tart who can't leave her students alone? and who can't understand she's grown old and is no longer that attractive? love stella - such a simple and straightforward woman! and of course i ADORE the staircase-scene. and - needless to say - AM a keen enthusiast of elia kazan's movie version. marlon brando as stanley? YUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-30 12:53:39.
(Language: English)
Love this!! Studied it for A-Level English Lit and played Stella in our own stage workshop of it. Such a gritty and passionate wonderfully written play!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-28 05:56:39.
(Language: English)
Read it in high school... it diagnosed me with epilepsy.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-03 05:42:33.
(Language: English)
I made the mistake and watched the movie from Netflix. Now I can't think of a great play without horrible images of Marlon Brando in my mind.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-18 09:44:33.
(Language: English)
I read this book in one sitting and then took my wife to see the play the very next day. A truly wonderful experience. - A must have for any personal library.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-14 12:06:09.
(Language: English)
Not a bad read for a play. If you get a chance, see the movie or better yet the play.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-22 01:40:44.
(Language: English)
A brilliant play, which really shows the divisions in society in America in the... 1950s? 40s perhaps. Although Blanche DuBois is severely condescending and could perhaps even be considered racist in her instant hatred of Stella's masculine but violent husband due to his Polish origin ... and afterall she comes from a plantation owning family in the South, one cannot help but empathise with her and pity her as she spirals into madness due to a troubled past, and the determination of her sister's husband Stanley to do whatever it takes to get rid of her, though she has nowhere to go.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-16 01:39:26.
(Language: English)
I have been revisiting and discovering some classic literature. I justed finished reading Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire." I have never read this play, or seen the movie version... so I knew very little what was going to happen considering how famous it is. The book is set in New Orleans, and begins with the character Stella with her upstairs neighbor Eunice sitting on the front porch as Stella's husband Stanley walks by on his way to go bowling, and yells out "Hey Stella" as he tosses her a package from the butcher. Stella goes with Stanley to watch him bowl as her sister Blanche DuBois comes to their house. Blanche puts on the airs of a southern belle who has been through more than she can handle, which her sister Stella takes with good nature. Stanley on the other hand doesn't dig this wilting flower routine and doesn't hide any of his blue collar roughness around Blanche. The famous "STELLA!!!" scene, made famous by Marlon Brando, happens a few scenes later when Blanche gets on Stanley's last nerve during one of his poker games and he ends up taking it out on Stella. So to get away from him, Stella runs upstairs to Eunice. Once over his fit a rage Stanley relizes what he has done and runs outside to the porch yelling "Stella!!! Hey Stella!!!" so she would come back down. Stella does eventually come down, and all is forgiven with a loving embrace. The rest of the play goes on with Stanley and Blanche's "delegect nature" butting heads. I am a little confused on what really was wrong with Blanche. At times she seemed to be honestly crazy when thinking about how her and Stella use to live in a big beautiful house with servants and everything, and other times it seemed like just an act. The story briefly goes into Blanche's past about losing her husband and then the bad name she ended up giving herself. Stanley was a little hard to figure out too. Whenever he was talking to Blanche his remarks were sarcastic and mean. But when it came to Stella his words were always kinder, more loving, and wanting to protect her. Maybe his relationship with Blanche was to show how tense relationships between in-laws can be, the husband has his way of living while the wife's family goes on about how her life should be. The story ends with Stella finally realizing that there is something really wrong with her sister, more than just her pain over losing their home Belle Reve. So it all ends with Blanche being carted away, (to a mental instituation I guess), with the famous line "I always depended on the kindness of strangers." "A Streetcar Named Desire" I thought was a good summer read. The version I had was 142 pages and had some pictures from its originally production. Tennessee Williams is one of the American writers I think anyone who enjoys literature should experience at least once.
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