The Birthday Party

by Harold Pinter

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Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding-house by two strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.

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4 reviews
Pinter mixes an acute awareness of realism through the comon speech of his characters with a harrowing insight into the human condition to terrifying results. I am unaware of whether it is his start realism, ambiguity of theme or unanticipated haunting which develops in the reader, and one would pressume audience, the sinster discomfort with which one attempts to leave the play (in that 'The Birthday Party' is not a drama one can remove from one's consciousness with any ease). As is quite obvious by its position in the Canon, a masterpiece of modernist drama.
i liked this, but i think i will have to read it about five more times to understand it.
انقدر پرده‌ی دوم سانسور داشت که نفهمیدم چی شد😐 نسخه‌ی انگلیسی‌ش هم پیدا نکردم اگه کسی داره برام بفرسته

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Author Information

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254+ Works 9,367 Members
English playwright, poet, and political activist Harold Pinter was born on October 10, 1930, in London's East End. From childhood he was interested in literature and acting. He studied at both the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Central School of Speech and Drama. Pinter was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of show more the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted to film. Pinter published his first poems in 1950. He worked as a bit-part actor in a BBC Radio program and also toured with a Shakespearean troupe. Pinter has written over 30 plays, achieving great success internationally. He has also directed several of his dramas. Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchant from 1956 to 1980, before wedding biographer Lady Antonia Fraser. From his first marriage he has a son who is a writer and musician. Pinter has won numerous prestigious literary prizes in poetry and theatre. He was awarded the Hermann Kesten Medallion for outstanding commitment on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers. He has been granted honorary degrees at universities in England, Scotland, the United States, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, and Greece. In 2005, Pinter received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died from cancer on December 24, 2008 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Some Editions

Davico Bonino, Guido (Introduction)
del Bono, Laura (Translator)
Lång Carl-Olof (Translator)
Liedholm Lars-Erik (Translator)
Nissim, Elio (Translator)
Ritter, John (Foreword)
Sang, Joel (TÕlkija.)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
The Birthday Party
Original title
The Birthday Party
Original publication date
1959
Related movies
The Birthday Party (1968 | IMDb); The Birthday Party (1987 | IMDb)

Classifications

Genre
Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
822.914Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish drama1900-1900-1999 20th Century1945-1999
LCC
PR6066 .I53 .B5Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

Statistics

Members
563
Popularity
52,641
Reviews
3
Rating
½ (3.63)
Languages
7 — Catalan, Czech, English, Estonian, French, Italian, Farsi/Persian
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
19
ASINs
11