Life of Galileo (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Bertolt Brecht (Author), John Willett (Editor, Translator, Introduction), Ralph Manheim (Translator, Introduction), Norman Roessler (Introduction), Richard Foreman (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: May 27, 2008

Galileo Ranks alongside Mother Courage and Mr. Puntila as one of Brecht’s most intensely alive, human, and complex characters. In Life of Galileo, the great Renaissance scientist is in a brutal struggle for freedom from authoritarian dogma. Unable to satisfy his appetite for scientific investigation, he comes into conflict with the Inquisition and must publicly renounce his theories, though in private he goes on working on his revolutionary ideas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“ Eloquent in its outcries against blind dogma and powerful in the simplicity of its storytelling, Galileo is a play that offers the confrontations of stirring drama made visible in vivid theatrical images.”
—Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) was one of the most influential playwrights of the twentieth century. Born in Augsburg, Bavaria, he left Germany in 1933 when Hitler came to power. Returning to Germany after the war, he founded the Berliner Ensemble and continued to work on plays and films. Richard Foreman is the MacArthur Prize–winning author, director, and designer of more than fifty original plays, and the founder of the Ontological–Hysteric Theater.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143105388
• ISBN-13: 978-0143105381
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Continental European
  • #18 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > German

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Galileo - Science vs. the Vatican circa 1600, September 10, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: Life of Galileo (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The plot, though fictionalized, resembles the basic outline of Galileo's life - Galileo used a new invention, the telescope, to empirically validate the Copernican model of the solar system. The universe doesn't actually revolve around the Earth, the Earth is just another planet that revolves around the Sun. Members of the clericy object to this. Some don't accept it since it contradicts their reading of the bible, others accept it but don't want the people to know because it will undermine their understanding of the world.

If the basic structure of the universe isn't they way they've been told, what else might be different? Could people live differently? Is the rule of the Church, Kings, not divinely ruled either? These are just a couple of the conundrums the play gives you to think about and always with both sides making very strong cases.

It sounds a little didactic put this way but it's an entertaining play. Galileo is portrayed as an Earthy character. He likes good food and being able to do as he pleases.

Aside from Galileo the other characters are also very well drawn, his daughter Virginia, his pupil Andrea, Cosimo De Medici, Cardinal Barberini.

All in all it's a interesting read with a lot of food for thought. Brecht gives you both drama and ideas and he does so quite suavely. Highly recommended.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can a "Historical" Play Be Dated?, August 16, 2009

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life of Galileo (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

So it seems with Brecht's "Life of Galileo", a thoroughly fictionalized portrayal of events in the 1600s that sounds, in the English translation, like a TV dramatization from the 1950s. But the translation is fair to the original, which sounds like German of the 1930s. I have trouble imagining how this play could be staged. If it were in early Baroque costumes, the language would sound utterly anachronistic. Perhaps modern dress would work better - a setting in Somerville, moving to Cambridge, and then to Deerfield, all in Massachusetts with appropriate Bay State accents. Brecht's political/philosophical message in this play may also seem dated, but I don't intend to explicate it here.

Yes, I am aware of Brecht's celebrated "Verfremdungseffekt" and I'm willing to concede that the anachronistic nature of this play is intended. But there are some catches. Brecht himself worked on the English version which was staged by the actor Charles Laughton as a 'realistic' drama. The alienation-effect couldn't have been prominent in that production. This is a richly annotated and comparative edition in English, with two complete versions of the play and with ample notes, including comments by Brecht that disclaim the tragic nature of Galileo's recantation and house-imprisonment.

Any play about Galileo is bound to be a play about Free Speech. Brecht's play is also about the responsibility of scientists - or the irresponsibility perhaps. It seems clear that Brecht understood that Galileo's persecutors were right, that new knowledge is inherently dangerous to old accomodations of society, that astronomy and Christian beliefs are incompatible. My 17th C avatar, Giordano Bruno, doesn't strut the boards in this drama, but his execution by the Roman Inquisition is a frequent topic. Bruno was possibly the first human to grasp infinity, to understand that an infinite universe can't have begun and can't end. Even Galileo, the real man with his telescope, fell short of Bruno's intuition. The core of Brecht's play is the battle-to-the-death between comforts of established religious customs and the potential of a future without religion.

If I were a stage director or a dramaturge, I'd take huge liberties with this play. I'd switch "heroes" from Galileo to Charles Darwin, with a contrafactual persecution of Darwin by an American HUAC. Brecht would understand; anything that forces an audience to react is good drama.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Hands-On Dramatic Exercise for AP Students, December 9, 2009

By 

Michael W. Wilson (Augusta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Life of Galileo (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The "Life of Galileo" made an excellent dramatic presentation for my AP Modern Euro History course to read. I would only advise that students take several roles (but be careful their multiple personas don't appear together in the same scene) because of the large cast of characters and that a teacher select only certain scenes from the play due to its length. The scenes with Cardinal Barberini make especially good read-aloud dramatizations.