Brecht Collected Plays: The Good Person of Szechwan : Part 1 [Hardcover]

Bertolt Brecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1990 | ISBN-10: 0413472604 | ISBN-13: 978-0413472601

"One of the greatest poets and dramatists of our century" (Observer) A parable in which the gods come to earth in search of a thoroughly good person

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera and, while exiled from Germany and living in the USA, such masterpieces as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 159 pages
• Publisher: Methuen (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0413472604
• ISBN-13: 978-0413472601
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,300,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to be a good person in a messed up world., April 18, 2010

By 

bongo (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Good Person of Szechwan (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

"First comes eating and then comes morality".

One day three Gods come down to Earth in Szechwan China in the early part of the 20th century. They meet an indigent man, a water carrier named Wang and ask him to find someone who will put them up for the night. They are travelling the world in search of good persons. They find one. After getting refused repeatedly, Wang at last finds someone to host these gentlemen, a prostitute named Shen-Teh. At some expense to herself, as she is expecting a client, Shen-Teh selflessly lets them stay with her. Pleased they were able to find a good person, they give her 1,000 silver coins.

With this money Shen-Teh buys a tobacco shop. Immediately people start taking advantage of her. An entire family moves into the shop. People make claims, saying she owes them money. Facing swift ruin, Shen-Teh creates a fictitious cousin, Shui-Ta. She dresses up as him, and he's able to put people off in the way she can't. Shui-Ta can say no. Shui-Ta helps her out then leaves.

Shen-Teh continues on, trying to make a living with the shop. On a rainy evening Shen-Teh meets a man Yang Sun. He is about to commit suicide. She speaks with him and prevents it. She falls in love with him.

That's the basic plot setup. I'll just add that Shui-Ta is forced to come back again. Things just keep conspiring against good Shen-Teh.

It's unconventional, as Brecht frequently is. Characters will break into song every once in a while. They'll talk directly to the audience. Sylistically, it's part fable/parable, part farce, part tragedy. I read the tone as semi-humourous, semi-serious. It's absurdist, but I agree with the idea that you can't have great comedy without a serious undercurrent and that comedy enhances a serious subject.

I had a few minor quibbles - towards the end it got a trifle confusing, there are a lot of minor characters that I had some trouble keeping track of, and I found Yang Sun a tad cryptic.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Play, January 11, 2012

By 

katg - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Person of Szechwan (Paperback)

I highly recommend this play. I bought it for my theatre class and didn't thought it would be a boring play, but it ended up being very good.

3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good work of honesty, May 4, 2001

By 

Charles Nielsen "Skillron" (Farmington, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good Person of Szechwan (Paperback)

I had to read this for my theatre department at school. But as I did I found that through the course of this play, Brecht gives a sense of honesty in all of the chracters. Weather that honesty is good or bad, it is a truthfull play that brings forth many aspects of seraching for what is good and bad.