Broken Glass (Penguin Plays) [Mass Market Paperback]

Arthur Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

This Student Edition of Broken Glass is perfect for students of literature and drama and offers an unrivalled and comprehensive guide to Miller's play. It features an extensive introduction by Alan Ackerman which includes a chronology of Miller's life and times, a summary of the plot and commentary on the characters, themes, language, context and production history of the play. Together with over twenty questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases from the text, this is the definitive edition of the play. Set in Brooklyn in 1938, Broken Glass is Miller's moving study of marital relations, Jewish identity and anti-Semitism that won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1994. Sylvia Gellburg is stricken by a mysterious paralysis in her legs for which the doctor can find no cause. He soon realises that she is obsessed by the devastating news from Germany, where government thugs have begun smashing Jewish stores. But through a series of meetings with her husband Phillip he learns that this experience is intermeshed with their strange relationship and the deceptions and hostilities that lie at the heart of their marriage. Professor Alan Acklerman's expertly edited edition of the play provides a wide-ranging study of Kristallnacht, and of American and European responses to the Holocaust, the situation of Jews in America from the 1930s to the 1990s, the Great Depression and other Holocaust and Jewish drama.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Readers will be thrilled to learn that Miller is back after an absence of more than a decade. Broken Glass marks his return to Broadway, projected for this fall? The play is a little bit about being Jewish and a lot about sexual repression and sexual reawakening. Freud would certainly applaud it since it vindicates his theory that so many illnesses start in the bedroom. Broken Glass is a deceptively simple play with a cast of only six characters. However, the characters are fascinating and passionate, and the drama unfolds like a good novel. Librarians should buy this script not simply because the playwright is a legend or because it is likely to become a classic but because it is a sensitive and penetrating look at human frailties. It should be a part of every dramatic literature or theater collection.
- Jon P. Cobes, Central Wyoming Coll., Riverton
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'His strongest play for many years, a gripping and at times powerfully affecting drama [which] balances private lives with public morality...It is also an amazingly full-blooded piece, bursting with pain and passion' Daily Telegraph --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Revised edition (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140249389
• ISBN-13: 978-0140249385
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) was born in New York City in 1915 and studied at the University of Michigan. He was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for Playwrighting at University of Michigan in 1936. He twice won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, received two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, as well as a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also won an Obie award, a BBC Best Play Award, the George Foster Peabody Award, a Gold Medal for Drama from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Literary Lion Award from the New York Public Library, the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Algur Meadows Award. He received honorary degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University and was awarded the Prix Moliere of the French theatre, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Lifetime Achievement Award and the Pulitzer Prize, as well as numerous other awards. He was named the Jefferson Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2001. He was awarded the 2002 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters and the 2003 Jerusalem Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling drama about fear, June 25, 2000

By 

Elizabeth (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broken Glass [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This Mobil Masterpiece Theater production of an adapatation of Arthur Miller's play is a gripping look at both the dilemma of being Jewish in pre-war America, as well as a fascinating look at how fear can, literally, cripple a life.

The story revolves around a married Jewish couple, the Gellburgs, in Brooklyn in 1938. Mrs. Gellburg suddenly finds herself unable to move her legs, and becomes the patient of Dr. Hyman, played powerfully by Mandy Patinkin. Mr. Gellburg, in a way, also becomes the patient of Dr. Hyman as Mrs. Gellburg's diagnosis is revealed to be hysterical paralysis -- i.e., it's all in her head.

What Dr. Hyman is left to uncover about the Gellburgs, including both the extremely personal -- their marriage and their identity as Jews -- and the extremely impersonal -- the beginning of the torture and slaughter of Jews in Germany -- teaches great lessons about the choices we make in our lives; when to give in, when to stand up and say, "Enough." Fear can be either a force for change, or an excuse to avoid the inevitable pains of life.

I highly recommend this serious and thought-provoking drama; it provides much food for thought for people of any age or situation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed the tape version of this book..., July 8, 2004

By 

Blaine Greenfield "eclectic reader" (Belle Meade, NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Broken Glass (Penguin Plays) (Mass Market Paperback)

Arthur Miller's play, BROKEN GLASS is an interesting psychological mystery set in Brooklyn in 1938 . . . it is about a 45-year-old woman who suddenly loses her ability to walk . . . there is no medical reason why this is happening; the only clue lies in her growing obsession with news accounts from Germany.

What I liked most about the taped version BROKEN GLASS was the cast, which included Lawrence Pressman, Linda Purl, JoBeth Williams, and the late David Dukes (who I had really liked as an actor) . . . this work was put out by a group called L.A. Theatre Works, which features full-cast productions of complete plays . . . my only regret is that I haven't come across too many other things they've done; i.e., that are available from my local library.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Broken, September 25, 2005

By 

JMack (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Broken Glass (Penguin Plays) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Broken Glass" is a thriller set in 1938 that personifies the fear that Hitler caused Jews in America. While this plot seems compelling, the story falls a little flat it other areas. This is far from Miller's best work.

When Sylvia suddenly looses the use of her legs, medical origins are unexpected. Yet as the story evolves, we find the cause to be psychological. It is suspected that a fear of the Nazi's treatment of Jews in Germany has caused her paralysis. However, there was something more. Sylivia has lived in a marriage with her husband Phillip that feels empty. They have not consumated their marriage in twenty years when their last child was conceived. Sylvia was raised in a family that coddled her and made her feel secure. Her marriage lacks all of the qualities of the family she was raised in. In a twist that seems out of place, Phillip suddenly dies in the last scene just as he promises to change for Sylvia. This happens just moments after she walks again.

In so many ways, this work does not seem to have the fingerprints of Arthur Miller. The characters are one dimensional and forced just for the sake of discussing one of Miller's most comfortable plots, anti-Semitism. Many of Miller's later works are disappointing. This fits that category.