List About Books Look Back in Anger
| Title | : | Look Back in Anger |
| Author | : | John Osborne |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 96 pages |
| Published | : | November 18th 1982 by Penguin Books (first published 1957) |
| Categories | : | Plays. Drama. Classics. Theatre. Fiction |
John Osborne
Paperback | Pages: 96 pages Rating: 3.59 | 8196 Users | 329 Reviews
Description Conducive To Books Look Back in Anger
I think what happened was that after the huge horror of World War Two and the major effort to remake society in Britain (welfare state, National Health Service) there was a kind of national exhaustion, a slumping into armchairs, and those too young to have fought those battles took the exhaustion for complacency and in the early 50s got really fed up about it, and hence the Angry Young Men – Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger (first produced in May 1956) was more or less the first of those. He arrived at the same time that the teddyboys were smashing up seats in cinemas when they went to see Rock Around the Clock (released March 1956). Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and the rest of the rockers were just around the corner, waiting to turn the anger into joy. So you might think that this angry play was just the kind of kick-start required – that’s what it was seen to be at the time. But when you get to actually read it, or see it or see the 1959 film, it’s like sticking your hand in a food blender. A really unpleasant experience. Jimmy Porter is a guy who pours out a constant stream of belittling bile and contempt over anything and everything in his poxy life but mostly all over his wife and her female friend. He’s almost but not quite the guy who when his wife undercooks the bacon gives her a black eye and then says look what you made me do. The wife meanwhile is a total doormat. She takes the hours upon hours of psychological bullying because she understands that really he’s a tortured genius who loves her and his pain is caused by the wicked world which persists in not recognising his genius and forcing him to live in a tiny one room flat and sell confectionary in a market place even though his brain is the size of the planet Jupiter at least and he’s really sensitive and watched his father die when he was 10, boo hoo. What Jimmy Porter needs is a solid pistol whipping from Sonny Corleone, but (spoiler alert) this does not happen. A FEW OF JIMMY’S AMUSING REMARKS Have you ever noticed how noisy women are? Have you? The way they kick the floor about, simply walking over it? Or have you watched them sitting at their dressing tables, dropping their weapons and banging their bits of boxes and brushes and lipsticks?. I’ve watched her doing it night after night. When you see a woman in front of her bedroom mirror, you realise what a refined sort of butcher she is. I know that the only way of finding out what’s going on is to catch them when they don’t know you’re looking. When she goes out, I go through everything – trunks, cases, drawers, bookcase, everything. Why? I want to know if I’m being betrayed. My wife… sweet and sticky on the outside, and sink your teeth in it, inside, all white, messy and disgusting. I’ve no public school scruples about hitting girls. Why why why why do we let these women bleed us to death? The plot of the play is pure male fantasy – he spends an hour bullying his wife, then her female friend arrives so he bullies her too, then the wife leaves him (hurray!) then the wife’s friend falls into his arms saying she just loves a bit of rough. Jimmy’s nastiness is all explained by his acute sensitivity and how he was a lonely little boy and now he’s an over-educated market trader in a world where he should be president of everything. So that’s why he hates women. Look Back in Anger was one of those famous British productions I had never read or seen before so I thought I’d tick it off, and now I’m sorry I did.
Define Books As Look Back in Anger
| Original Title: | Look Back in Anger |
| ISBN: | 0140481753 (ISBN13: 9780140481754) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating About Books Look Back in Anger
Ratings: 3.59 From 8196 Users | 329 ReviewsWrite Up About Books Look Back in Anger
I've decided to start reading plays. Why?a) they are generally short. I like shortb) they get to the point. I love getting to the pointc) no awful descriptions or indulgent purple prose. I do quite like that kind of thing, but it can so kill a book, so why bother.Gawd, i'm becoming such a pragmatist, it's awful.ANYWAY, am enjoying this muchly in a stomach churning way. Jimmy has to be one of the most loathesome, confused and anger inducing leads of all time. My jaw literally clenches when ILadies and Gentlemen...John Osborne has LEFT the theatre.Look Back in Anger was John Osborne's first successful play. Off the back of this he wrote The Entertainer; specially requested from him by Olivier, no less. Osborne's future look assured as a playwright whose stock could only rise. But when he died, in 1994, Look Back in Anger ((written at 26, in 1956) and The Entertainer (at 27, in 1957) remained Osborne's only works that are remembered. Whether they've endured as well is moot. The last
There are certain books in my life I regret reading and if I'm to list them, this play, 'Look Back In Anger', should find its place in the top 5. God! What a squalid exhibition of cheap melodrama! The play means to portray the conflicts between a husband from a working class origin and his upper middle class wife; the never failing age long formulated theme. As it requires, the protagonist is a tough and very 'intelligent' man, proud of experiencing all the harshness of life while the wife is
Hes not only got guts, but sensitive as well. Thats about the rarest combination I could think of.When a man balances his mind, his ego, with his heart and gutsthis rare human being emerges, in touch with his intuition and instinct. Jimmy, the play's center of attention and the one aware of this rare combination, is nothing of the sort. He is arrogant, naggy and superbly obnoxious. He constantly harasses his lovely wife, Alison, and only true friend, Cliff, for no apparent reason. His assaults
Definately one of the best plays i have read in a long time. Jimmy's hatred, inspired by the undeniable class division of 50s England, creates a uniquely relatable character. Despite his grotesquely critical hatred for all that surrounds him, you cant help but feel pity for the cynic, "born out of his time".
I don't know what to feel about this play and decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 2 star tops. I was glad it only consumed 86 pages, otherwise it would have triggered my inner aggresion/jimmy to pop out. Jimmy is a typical arrogant, conceited, selfish sob and I really couldn't believe how Alison looked pass his insults. Guess women in overall had no oher choice to do so in the '50. Gah!!! So frustrating, I don't know what to feel. At least this play set my brain to thinking.
2 stars.I didn't hate it, let me start by saying that. However, I just don't think these normal life normal people kind of plays are for me, if I like to read plays in general, since I haven't found one I absolutely love and I doubt I ever will.
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