The Birthday Party & The Room (Paperback)

~ Harold Pinter (Author) "The living-room of a house in a seaside town..." (more)
Key Phrases: old mum, Uncle Barney, The Mountains of Morne

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Product Description

In The Birthday Party, a musician who escapes to a dilapidated boarding house becomes the victim of a ritual murder in which everyone- assassins, victim, and observers- implacably plays out the role assigned him by fate.The Room, a derelict boarding house again becomes the scene of a visitation of fate when a blind Black man suddenly arrives to deliver a mysterious message.

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Product Details Paperback: 120 pages Publisher: Grove Press; Revised edition (January 20, 1994) Language: English ISBN-10: 0802151140 ISBN-13: 978-0802151148 Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #257,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in this category: (What's this?) #11 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Pinter, Harold

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First Sentence:
The living-room of a house in a seaside town. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
old mum

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Uncle Barney, The Mountains of Morne

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 2 books:

• The Birthday Party (Lettice) by Mandy Stanley on 15 pages
• My First Prayers: Thank You by Anne Riley on page 112

 

19 books cite this book:

• Pinter at 70: A Casebook (Casebooks on Modern Dramatists) by Lois Gordon on page 256, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
• Harold Pinter and the Twilight of Modernism by Varun Begley in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
• The Homecoming by Harold Pinter in Front Matter
• Betrayal by Harold Pinter in Front Matter
• The Caretaker and the Dumb Waiter (Pinter, Harold) by Harold Pinter in Front Matter

See all 19 books citing this book

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	89% buy the item featured on this page: The Birthday Party & The Room 4.5 out of 5 stars (4) $11.20
	4% buy The Birthday Party (Pinter plays) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
	2% buy Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 4.5 out of 5 stars (44) $11.20
	2% buy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 4.4 out of 5 stars (89) $10.08

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:  (2) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Pinter's First Play, Absurdity Rules!, July 4, 2009 By  John F. Rooney - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    "The Room" (1957) was Harold Pinter's first play, a one act piece, and it demonstrates some of the Absurdist features we grew to know so well: the seemingly aimless conversation, the sense of menace, dread, and terror, real violence or lurking violence, the Pinterian pauses, the feeling that we are in alien territory dealing with characters who don't seem to be in control of their destinies. Of course none of us is in control of his or her destiny, but in this play Rose doesn't know if the room is still hers, who her landlord is, and who are the strange people who enter the room and seem to be attempting to control her life. Is Mr. Kidd the landlord? If he is, he doesn't know how many floors the house has. Rose asks him questions; he evades answering them or doesn't comprehend. The stranger Riley calls her Sal, and says she is wanted at home. She's puzzled; we're puzzled, and that's part of what Pinter is saying--we live in an existential world in which we operate and wait for we know not what. Pinter took his cue from Samuel Beckett and brought his audience into new territory where the norms of behavior were altered, into a world of questions without answers. But Pinter the artist was able to create an alternative world in which his plots intrigue us, his dialogue has its own beauty and majesty, and his characters fascinate us. Pinter changed the audience's expectations, shook them out of their usual theater-going habits and made them think. He made them anxious, antsy with his skittish people in his edgy plays. Rose says, "Who did bring me into the world?" Why, Pinter did, of course. Rose Hudd talks endlessly in the beginning, and her husband Bert says nothing. It's cold and damp, and he has to take the van out. When he comes back he talks briefly about his trip and savagely confronts a stranger, and Rose ends up transformed. Pinter often used the enclosure of a single room: human beings were caged in, caught in a claustrophobic situation. The play seems slow-moving yet a great deal happens. Great portent is conveyed quite quickly. He's a shock and awe artist. There's always the possibility Pinter is toying with us, seeing what he can get away with, seeing if his quirky stuff will go over, conning us. I have reviewed "The Birthday Party" elsewhere on Amazon. 7 of 11 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars The Birthday Party, March 13, 2001 By  Gunnar Bell Gundersen (Norway) - See all my reviews The Birthday Party is a very good play about a young man and his inevitable and perhaps unavoidable fate. The plot is quite simple, yet it is also elegant in its simplicity. Without saying too much, the story is about a young man who has been living for some time in a beach-sited boarding house owned by a mid-aged couple. These characters lives' are invaded by two men who for some unknown reason want to catch the young man. The story evolves... The play is captivating and exciting, at some points also downright scary. Pinter has obviously used techniques of how to seize the attention of an audience, something a reader will surely experience. The incertainty and unease that fills the story is highly credible, as one easily can identify the feelings that fills you when something sudden, dangerous and unavoidable happens to you. I think Pinter perhaps has found inspiration in other authors works. As I read it, I came to think on Hemingways short story "The Killers" and the sense of utter despair of Kafka's "The Trial". Please do not shoot me should you disagree.. As a play, one recognizes elements that characterize most great playwrights, both classical and modern, due to its "actor-friendliness" and room for interpretation. Recommended, indeed. And one last thing to Ken (The reviewer): Unless you follow the idea that Meg has a brain-disfunction, She is definitely not Stanleys mother. 4 of 7 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars sinister intent?, February 7, 2001 By  W. K. Miller "kenmiller32" (NC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Harold Pinter's _The Birthday Party_: A young man lives with his mother at a run-down boarding house near the beach. Two visitors come and shake things up. They don't do anything wild or unusual, but they question and intimidate the young man, until the reader becomes unsure what sinister plans the two men have in mind. Pinter's strength lies in his dialogue, which is thoroughly believable and memorable. Not for a moment does the reader doubt that these scenes could happen (and may HAVE happened) in real life. As this reader read the play, the tension built and built, as I became more and more sympathetic to the young man, awaiting to learn his fate, as his own will seemingly deteriorated. I would agree that this play is a funny read, but it's certainly very unsettling as well. If you haven't read anything by Harold Pinter, or are curious because you've read his other plays, _The Birthday Party_ is worth checking out. ken32		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Out Loud, Funny! A side splitting send up of the misunderstood artist. One of the funniest plays of the century, by one of England's greatest playwrights. Bring your knife and fork! Published on September 26, 1999 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; Revised edition (January 20, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802151140
• ISBN-13: 978-0802151148
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #257,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #11 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Pinter, Harold

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pinter's First Play, Absurdity Rules!, July 4, 2009

By	John F. Rooney - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Room" (1957) was Harold Pinter's first play, a one act piece, and it demonstrates some of the Absurdist features we grew to know so well: the seemingly aimless conversation, the sense of menace, dread, and terror, real violence or lurking violence, the Pinterian pauses, the feeling that we are in alien territory dealing with characters who don't seem to be in control of their destinies.
Of course none of us is in control of his or her destiny, but in this play Rose doesn't know if the room is still hers, who her landlord is, and who are the strange people who enter the room and seem to be attempting to control her life. Is Mr. Kidd the landlord? If he is, he doesn't know how many floors the house has. Rose asks him questions; he evades answering them or doesn't comprehend.
The stranger Riley calls her Sal, and says she is wanted at home. She's puzzled; we're puzzled, and that's part of what Pinter is saying--we live in an existential world in which we operate and wait for we know not what.
Pinter took his cue from Samuel Beckett and brought his audience into new territory where the norms of behavior were altered, into a world of questions without answers. But Pinter the artist was able to create an alternative world in which his plots intrigue us, his dialogue has its own beauty and majesty, and his characters fascinate us.
Pinter changed the audience's expectations, shook them out of their usual theater-going habits and made them think. He made them anxious, antsy with his skittish people in his edgy plays. Rose says, "Who did bring me into the world?" Why, Pinter did, of course.
Rose Hudd talks endlessly in the beginning, and her husband Bert says nothing. It's cold and damp, and he has to take the van out. When he comes back he talks briefly about his trip and savagely confronts a stranger, and Rose ends up transformed.
Pinter often used the enclosure of a single room: human beings were caged in, caught in a claustrophobic situation. The play seems slow-moving yet a great deal happens. Great portent is conveyed quite quickly. He's a shock and awe artist.
There's always the possibility Pinter is toying with us, seeing what he can get away with, seeing if his quirky stuff will go over, conning us.
I have reviewed "The Birthday Party" elsewhere on Amazon.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Birthday Party, March 13, 2001

By	Gunnar Bell Gundersen (Norway) - See all my reviews

The Birthday Party is a very good play about a young man and his inevitable and perhaps unavoidable fate. The plot is quite simple, yet it is also elegant in its simplicity. Without saying too much, the story is about a young man who has been living for some time in a beach-sited boarding house owned by a mid-aged couple. These characters lives' are invaded by two men who for some unknown reason want to catch the young man. The story evolves...

The play is captivating and exciting, at some points also downright scary. Pinter has obviously used techniques of how to seize the attention of an audience, something a reader will surely experience. The incertainty and unease that fills the story is highly credible, as one easily can identify the feelings that fills you when something sudden, dangerous and unavoidable happens to you.

I think Pinter perhaps has found inspiration in other authors works. As I read it, I came to think on Hemingways short story "The Killers" and the sense of utter despair of Kafka's "The Trial". Please do not shoot me should you disagree..

As a play, one recognizes elements that characterize most great playwrights, both classical and modern, due to its "actor-friendliness" and room for interpretation.

Recommended, indeed.

And one last thing to Ken (The reviewer): Unless you follow the idea that Meg has a brain-disfunction, She is definitely not Stanleys mother.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sinister intent?, February 7, 2001

By	W. K. Miller "kenmiller32" (NC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Harold Pinter's _The Birthday Party_:

A young man lives with his mother at a run-down boarding house near the beach. Two visitors come and shake things up. They don't do anything wild or unusual, but they question and intimidate the young man, until the reader becomes unsure what sinister plans the two men have in mind.

Pinter's strength lies in his dialogue, which is thoroughly believable and memorable. Not for a moment does the reader doubt that these scenes could happen (and may HAVE happened) in real life.

As this reader read the play, the tension built and built, as I became more and more sympathetic to the young man, awaiting to learn his fate, as his own will seemingly deteriorated.

I would agree that this play is a funny read, but it's certainly very unsettling as well.

If you haven't read anything by Harold Pinter, or are curious because you've read his other plays, _The Birthday Party_ is worth checking out.

ken32