A Streetcar Named Desire

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story of the fading and desperate Blanche DuBois and how her sensuous and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, pushes her over the edge is now classic. Who better than Arthur Miller, America’s elder statesman of the theater (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Broken Glass, Resurrection Blues), to write as a witness to the lightning that struck American culture when Williams’s singular style of poetic dialogue, violence, compassion, and dramatic sexuality was first encountered in the form of A Streetcar Named Desire? Miller’s rich perspective and lucid insights make this a unique and essential new edition. Included are Williams’s essay “The World I Live In” and a chronology of the author’s life and works.