Mother Courage and her children: A chronicle of the Thirty Years' War (A black cat book) [Paperback]

Bertolt Brecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1980 | Series: A black cat book

Widely considered one of the great dramatic creations of the modern stage, "Mother Courage and Her Children" is Bertolt Brecht's most passionate and profound statement against war. Set in the seventeenth century, the play follows Anna Fierling -- "Mother Courage" -- an itinerant trader, as she pulls her wagon of wares and her children through the blood and carnage of Europe's religious wars. Battered by hardships, brutality, and the degradation and death of her children, she ultimately finds herself alone with the one thing in which she truly believes -- her ramshackle wagon with its tattered flag and freight of boots and brandy. Fitting herself in its harness, the old woman manages, with the last of her strength, to drag it onward to the next battle. In the enduring figure of Mother Courage, Bertolt Brecht has created one of the most extraordinary characters in the literature of drama.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Play by Bertolt Brecht, written in German as Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder: Eine Chronik aus dem Dreissigjahrigen Krieg, produced in 1941 and published in 1949. Composed of 12 scenes, the work is a chronicle play of the Thirty Years' War and is based on the picaresque novel Simplicissimus (1669) by Hans Jakob Grimmelshausen. In 1949 Brecht staged Mother Courage, with music by Paul Dessau, in the Soviet sector of Berlin. The plot revolves around a woman who depends on war for her personal survival and who is nicknamed Mother Courage for her coolness in safeguarding her merchandise under enemy fire. One by one her three children die, yet she continues her profiteering. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; Revised edition (1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802140742
• ISBN-13: 978-0802140746
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,623,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go ahead and feel, May 16, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother Courage and Her Children (Paperback)

Saying that Brecht didn't want his plays to evoke an emotional response is an extreme oversimplification of his theories. He just didn't want the emotional response to overwhelm the intellectual response and remove the audience's capacity to judge the work objectively. In this play, we have a heroine who is not a heroine. We understand her, but we never empathize with her. Consequently, the interdependence of war and economy is illuminated without making the reader wallow in excessive emotion. Yes, we do feel strongly when Kattrin is beathing her drum, but that feeling is not what the audience leaves with at the end of the play.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Response to Noah Lambert's review, May 10, 2001

By 

Molly McBride (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother Courage and Her Children (Paperback)

Brecht doesn't want emotion because that is Brechtian theater. He thought that in order for a play to invoke social change, it needed to be clear to the audience, that the audience needed to learn something. Emotions, Brecht felt, clog the mind and only feed the brain sentiment, not rational thought. Mother Courage and Her Children is, quite obviously, an anti-war play. Brecht wants you to see that war makes criminals out of everyone, even mothers. He wants you to love Mother Courage while you hate her so that the emotion is cancelled out and you are only left with the thoughts of her actions and why they were wrong. If you want a play to read or perform that is challenging, amazing, and intellectual all at once, this is the way to go. I performed this and I was forever changed.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mother Courage WILL INSPIRE YOU!!!, March 3, 1999

By 

Adam Roberts - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother Courage and Her Children: Adapted By David Hare (Paperback)

I had to read this for my English/Theater class, and I found it to be extremely compelling and profound. Our teacher told us that Brecht doesn't want to evoke an emotional response, but even so, I was strongly moved by the events that transpire, and Kattrin's ultimate sacrifice. I also had to compare David Hare's version with the translations of Manheim and Bentley, and I found that Hare's was the sharpest because of the way he distills the dialogue down to its core. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in theater, literature, or life.