Thornton Wilder Libri

These provacative and illuminating essays by a major figure in American letters range widely in tone and theme, but they are all distinguished by Wilder's penetrating and experienced intelligence and his marvelous intellectual audacity.

Letters written between 1950 and 1975 by Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen discussing their reading of Finnegan's Wake. schovat popis

The enduring power of Thornton Wilder's work lies in its ability to connect audiences to their shared humanity through the theater. His plays resonate with timeless themes that encourage reflection and understanding among people. The description highlights the importance of live performance in preserving Wilder's legacy and the universal truths found in his storytelling.

"Collected Plays and Writings on Theater" is the definitive edition of Thornton Wilder's theatrical works, showcasing his journey from early one-act plays to masterpieces like "Our Town." It features unpublished material, including scenes from his unfinished play "The Emporium" and his original screenplay for Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt," highlighting his dramatic storytelling prowess.

One of the best-known, most frequently performed of modern plays, A Doll's House richly displays the genius with which Henrik Ibsen pioneered modern, realistic prose drama. In the central character of Nora, Ibsen epitomized the human struggle against the humiliating constraints of social conformity. Nora's ultimate rejection of a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house" shocked theatergoers of the late 1800s and opened new horizons for playwrights and their audiences. But daring social themes are only one aspect of Ibsen's power as a dramatist. A Doll's House shows as well his gifts for creating realistic dialogue, a suspenseful flow of events and, above all, psychologically penetrating characterizations that make the struggles of his dramatic personages utterly convincing. Here is a deeply absorbing play as readable as it is eminently playable, reprinted from an authoritative translation. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Wilder's early novels showcase his wit and philosophical depth, blending innovative forms with rich narratives. In The Cabala, he captures youthful enchantment in Rome through the lens of an American student's fictional memoir, mingling with a mysterious group of nobles. His acclaimed work, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, explores profound themes of love and destiny through a friar's investigation into five lives lost in a bridge collapse in 18th-century Peru. This elegantly crafted tale delves into the nature of divine intention and the justification of human suffering.

"Meet George Marvin Brush--Don Quixote come to Main Street in the Great Depression, and one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. George Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois--and into the soul of America itself."--Amazon.com description

Drawing on such unique sources as Thornton Wilder's unpublished letters, journals, and selections from the extensive annotations Wilder made years later in the margins of the book, Tappan Wilder's Afterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this internationally acclaimed novel. The Ides of March, first published in 1948, is a brilliant epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome. Thornton Wilder called it "a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic." Through vividly imagined letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of history's most magnetic, elusive personalities. In this inventive narrative, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being. Wilder also resurrects the controversial figures surrounding Caesar -- Cleopatra, Catullus, Cicero, and others. All Rome comes crowding through these pages -- the Rome of villas and slums, beautiful women and brawling youths, spies and assassins.