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Customer Reviews (19)

"That's because we live in the suburbs of London and because our name is Smith."
I've seen The Bald Soprano and The Chairs performed, and it has been on my list for quite a while to read them both. The other two plays in the volume I saw as a kind of bonus.

The Chairs is the gem in the book. It was just as wonderful to read as it was to see. Ionesco and his feel for the absurdities in language is always charming, but the Chairs combines that sense of fun and the absurd with some very real pathos.

I was not familiar with Jack, and was glad to have a chance to read it. The bride with three noses and the absurd Grandmother and Grandfather Jack are wonderful characters-- I look forward to having an opportunity to see this staged.

Essential reading for people with an interest in the Theater of the Absurd.

Ionesco!
As history tells us, the Frenchman Eugene Ionesco was learning English in the late 1940s when he was struck by the arbitrary nature of the sentences used to teach foreign language.("I have a dog.His name is Spot.My name is Duncan.")Their nihilism and nonsensicality became the basis for his first play, La cantatrice chauve -- The Bald Soprano.People who come across this play mostly love it or hate it (witness reviews here); I think it's one of the most most interesting things ever written.Those who dislike the bizarre will want to throw this book in the trash; the plays in this volume really are absurd, but they've got their own reason.

I've used one quotation from The Bald Soprano, from time to time, in response to the decisions of some of our political "leaders":

"Experience teaches us that when one hears the doorbell ring it is because there is never anyone there."

There is definitely stuff to be found here.Of Ionesco, I will always say:Worth a read.

Without a Doubt the Worst Book I Have Ever Read
This is simply the worst book that I have ever read. Without any doubts in my mind, I can say that Eugene Ionesco is the luckiest man alive for making money off of this horrible excuse for a book. Do not waste your money on trash like this. Paper wasted on this book could have been used for things much more important. The book was written to not make any sense. Do not try and say that it's funny or absurdist. I could write this filth in less than an hour. Blindfolded. And you could give the computer a spear even. Eugene Ionesco wrote this book for money and nothing else. If you call this book hilarious than you need to go out, see some good movies and then reconsider your thoughts about what is funny and what isn't. Do not waste your money on this book. I have wasted my time reading it thinking that there may be something rewarding at the end, but unsurprisingly it let me down and ended in a fantastically horrible fashion. You can call this book absurdist all you want, but your better off just calling it a fire starter.

review
The amount of creativity and ingenuity Ionessco holds as a playwright is remarkable. His plays are an inspiration to the avant-garde mind.To be short and sweet, I recommend this collection of plays.If you are an Ionesco fan, I also recommend checking out his literature for children.

HILARIOUS
I just finished being in a production of The Bald Soprano as Mrs. Martin. The best show I've ever been in. This script is amazing - every rehearsal the cast would be laughing until we all had tears in our eyes at the humor we found in this "anti-play". Absolutely brilliant - do yourself a favor and pick up this book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (10)

Audacious Absurdity
Every time I read an absurdist play, I feel the typical symptoms: confusion, isolation, annoyance, and enlightment. Ionesco did not fail to dissapoint. That is he did not fail to deliver a play in pure absurdist form. Although the absurd structure is not easy to identify, one can always pinpoint it. Reading these play I heard many questions being asked: "how do humans fulfill their essence?", "is it necessary to commit to an ideal in order for life to have meaning?". These questions alone made it easy to distinguish what kind of plays these were about.
Ionesco sets forth plays questioning the appeal of power and beauty and its detrimental effects on human nature, more specifically with "Rhinocerous". I have heard many people say that this play deals mainly with the concept of human conformity, but is it really conformity when humans are drawn to an ideal and desire to portray it. Is power, beauty and love a form of conformity, or human nature? Are the Rhinoceri a representation of human nature in its purest state, or human nature gone awry?

A classic reconsidered
Perhaps it has to do with time, but I think Rhinoceros reads better from a perspective other than the one having to do with fascism. I chose to direct it recently from a very different point of view and one, I think, that would facilitate a bristling reading. The play is not about fascism per se, but rather about the rigidity of social convention, which was one of Ionesco's concerns. Just listen to Jean's constant criticisms of Berenger's appearance and behavior. The first time the Rhinoceroses appear, Berenger has had enough of Jean and is, wishfully thinking, wishing ill upon him. Why a Rhinoceros? Perhaps because Jean is so prissy; perhaps Berenger wishes he was thick-skinned enough to shrug off Jean's derision. The first act ends, indeed, with an argument between the two. Think of the appearance of the Rhino in the second act as an unconcsious working out of his wishful thinking: Jean is replaced by the insulting and condescending Dudard. Either Berenger misfires or he is testing--through Mrs Boeff--whether love can withstand "Rhinoceritis". It appears it can. Notice his conversations with Daisy. Read Act Three as Berenger taunting, harassing, and inflicting Rhinoceritis upon Jean in a kind of coup de grace, separating himself completely from Jean and the conventions he stands for. In the fourth act, however, we see the daydream get out of his control because, as Jean told us in the beginning, Berenger's thinking is all muddled; Daisy catches the 'disease' as she tries to win or seduce him, but he himself is, ironically, immune or a coward. Ionesco, of course, is richer than a simplistic point a view; but as Jean, again, tells us in the beginning, Berenger is a dreamer, and examining Berenger's state of mind as the cause of the rampant and rampaging outbreak of Rhinoceritis makes for acomic and tragic reading and very entertainig piece of theatre.

Dated Translation
Ionesco is one of the greatest of the absurdist playwrights. Rhinoceros is a great piece -- an amalgam of comedy and tragedy that will have you doubled over in laughter one moment and desperately frightened the next.

That being said, this translation has some serious problems. It was very strange to read as an American in 2004, because it is written in the English spoken in Great Britain in the 1960s. In addition to serious liberties taken by the translator (i.e. simply leaving out certain lines), there sometimes crops up a lack of flow that is all too common in translated literature.

Despite the fact that it's time for a new translation, I highly recommend Ionesco's plays, and Rhinoceros in particular. If you know French, read the original!

Surprisingly relevant for our times
One could do worse than to commemorate the installation of George W. Bush as President-apparent of the United States by reading "The Leader," one of the short plays in this collection.(My favorite quote these days: "But -- the Leader hasn't got a head!" "What's he need a head for when he's got GENIUS?")_Rhinoceros_ itself, of course, in its slow-motion documentation of the "rhinozation" of an entire populace, was originally a trope on the rise of Nazism, but could certainly be applied to the gradual rightward shift of the American political spectrum.

The French Version
Well, I am currently reading the French version of the play, and thankful for doing so.The english version is so off by literal standards it takes much of the meaning away.The entire cat discussion-that was based on cats and dogs-a dog has 4 paws therefore it is a cat because a cat has 4 paws. It is a very absurd play-but better in french. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

A book about preparing to Die
Some say philosophy is simply the study of how to accustom man to let go of life.And, Exit the King deals exactly with this subject.The King, believed by some to be a metaphor for God (but that involves whole different implications) is dying.His kindom is falling apart and falling into nothingness.The King, at the urgings of "the Doctor," is forced to face that indeed, he will die within the course of this play.

Denial, Anger...all the usual forms of defense the King plays.The play centers around how the King is to deal with his impending death.

Marguerite, his young second wife, begs him to live in the moment, and the power of love and happiness in the present will overcome even death.Deny, and live in the present.

Marie, his older first wife, demands the King face reality, and look death in the face, scolding him for not doing so all his life and for being so ill prepared.She, in this short play, urges him through the process of letting go of his defenses and his insecurities, and embrace death.

The play is a thought provoking one, and an excellent short read.

Loved it!
This book made me think: am I the king that lives his life and doesn't care what happens? When I am just about to die, will I be regretting just like this king does? Am I living my life to its full extent? Some good philosophical questions are raised in the book. I recommend you to read it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Play Relevant to Our Times
I have long been an admirer of Eugène Ionesco, with his playful wit and keen insights into human nature.This play is certainly among his best.The inspiration for it was the Nazi phenomenon in the Europe of the 20th century, but the theme is timeless, since we are all too prone to follow slavishly whatever movements we encounter in our society. To do so makes us less than human.The play's hero, Bérenger, is full of flaws, but he is paradoxically the only character capable of resisting the allure of the herd mentality.The play not only has a powerful message; it is also lots of fun to read.

An stampede of
Euguene Ionesco (1912-1994) was born in Romania, but lived a great part of his life in France. He was an important exponent of what became known as "the Theatre of Absurd", a kind of avant garde theatre that was born more or less in the 1950s and that somehow manages to transmit a message through irrational speech and strange occurrences that take place in what seem at first glance as common situations. Other exponents of this kind of theatre are, for example, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter

"Rhinoceros" was written by Ionesco in 1958, and has a strange plot. The main character is Berenger, a Frenchman who likes to drink a lot. Berenger doesn't seem to mind when a rhinoceros first appears running past his town square, while he is talking with his friend Jean. Everybody else is astounded, but they are truly horrified when the same rhinoceros (or maybe another one) returns and even kills a cat.Even that doesn't shake Berenger, unfortunately. The situation is almost dramatically altered later, when Berenger realizes that many of his acquaintances are turning into rhinoceros without apparent reason. The pertinent questions are quite a few, for instance: will rhinoceros ultimately prevail?. And can an average person resist to conformity, or is the temptation to be like everybody else to big?.

This book can be understood as a metaphore regarding nazism and its diffusion in Germany, and has a lot to do with Ionesco's experiences with the Nazis. However, its main theme is the rise of totalitarism, the kind of behaviour and relativism that takes a country to that, and the dehumanization of those that succumb to conformism (like the human beings that slowly turn into rhinoceros, almost indistinguishable from each other). Due to that, "Rhinoceros" was considered a dangerous play by more than one totalitarism. For instance, the play was to be produced in the URSS, but the government wouldn't allow it to be played if Ionesco didn't say that the rhinoceros were the Nazis and not them. As Ionesco refused to do so, "Rhinoceros" couldn't be played...

On the whole, I can say that I really liked this play. It is interesting, easy to read (yes, without overly difficult vocabulary!!) and has a deeper meaning that shouldn't be lost to us. That is, conformity isn't the answer when an stampede of "rhinoceros" tries to run over us...

Belen Alcat
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Customer Reviews (3)

Powerhouse, as mind bending as Kafka's diaries
I find I enjoy this more intimate, personally acquaintance with the mind of Eugene Ionesco better than his plays.Even his earliest memories are tightly wound with his inescapable feelings of absurdity. Like Nabokov, Ionesco found solace in his work as a refuge from the the basic meaninglessness of world events, politics, and in some ways even art itself.In one passage he renounces Rimbaud's "Illuminations", so far does he descend into the depths of skepticism.Misery has it's place here, but so does an odd, rare kind of joy. "I know what hell is now", he says in a tone of authoritativeness. A must read.

For all those who marvel at life!
A beautiful book that sparks with the wonderment of life. I am inspired by the way Ionesco combines storytelling and philosophy in such a elgeant manner. He is able to provide organization to the chaos which is the searchfor understanding.He writes honestly and from the heart with the mosthumble tone i have read in a long time.Anyone who has ever pondered thebasic questions of life and death should read this book. He will bothinspire and teach any open mind.

Human among Humans
Ionescu wrote a jouranl that make takes your breath away. There is so much human understanding, so deep and still so common questions he poses inthis book that one cannot stop admiring it. He was ald when he wrote it and all his fame and career were already behind. The 'member of the French Academy' the 'imortal' appears to the reader amazingly simple and shy with a touch of gentilness and kindness sending you rather to Reiner Maria Rilke than to the author of 'Rhinoceros'.A book that deserves to be read! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Drama for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the play's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Drama for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Drama for Students."Download Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to bone up for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Drama for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by the Gale Group--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the play's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Drama for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: The Gale Group--and "Drama for Students." ... Read more

Book Description
Eugene Ioneso's dramas still work in theatres thanks to what some critics call his primordial sense of some of the foundations of drama. This text examines some of his work, including The Bald Soprano, The Lesson, The Chair, and Rhinoceros.

This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School; preeminent literary critic of our time. Titles present the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature reflecting a variety of schools of criticism. Texts also contain critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index, and an introductory essay by Bloom. ... Read more