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 | | Mother Courage and Her Children (Methuen Drama) by Bertolt Brecht, Michael Hofmann (Translator) ISBN-10: 9780713684667 ISBN-10: 0-7136-8466-6 ISBN-13: 9780713684667 ISBN-13: 978-0-7136-8466-7 Paperback 2007-09-01 Methuen Drama Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description A new translation by Michael Hofmann is published to coincide with the United Kingdom's national tour by English Touring Theatre. | ||
Reviews | ||
All is lost in war It is a good, good play, that is what they say. The English translation of the songs is pretty good. It is definitely great literature, even in translation. I've read Greek master drama/ tragedy that wasn't as convincing. The characters are realistic and the situations are true to life. But in the realism is the blow of a weapon that strikes us. Courage fails the brave mother as her children are stripped from her in death by war. | ||
WAR- UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL In what appears to be a permanent war in Iraq it is not untimely to address the question posed by Bertolt Brecht of how individuals caught up on the margins of warfare cope, for good or evil, with the traumas, unappetiting personal decisions and unmitigated horror of it. Brecht, the master Communist playwright, has taken a story of a working mother's struggle to survive as a camp following petty merchant in the Thirty Years War of the 17th century in Germany as his backdrop to investigate one aspect of that phenomena- the elemental struggle for individual survival. And it is not pretty. This mother is not the mother who gains increased political consciousness in another Brecht classic-The Mother. Far from it. If the simple moral of the story is that war does nothing to elevate the human spirit or bring out the better instincts of our nature Brecht has made his point in rather stark terms. The struggle of Mother Courage to keep her `mom and pop' business going at the cost of the lives of her children may not go down well with today's more squeamish audiences but the unfortunate fact is that all over the world, and most notably in today's Iraq, those very same kind of cold, calculating decisions are being made by families in order to survive. The fact that it is a mother, the source of life and supposed nurturer-in-chief, who is sacrificing her children only makes that observation more compelling. Brecht wants us to see that, while greed and acquisitiveness may not be eternal human characteristics, under conditions of scarcity that have dominated most of human history the struggle has led to some very strange behavior. In the end his play is not only a cry against war but the economic conditions that engender war as well. That would require some mighty big changes. But we better think about it. | ||
The Most Boring Play I have ever read. There is not a single passage of entertainment in this play, or anything even scarcely enjoyable about the reading experience. You will never finish it unless you are at all interested in the Thirty Years War. If you're going to read anything by Brecht, try the witty 'Threepenny Opera', which succeeds at everything that Brecht needs to do to impart his political beliefs without putting his readers to sleep. | ||
not so good...... I read this book for my European History AP class...actually for the summer work. I chose it because it seemed short and easy to read. Boy was I wrong. I did not enjoy this book at all. My recommendation is to choose another play. Each scene was totally different, which I did not like. The language is a bit confusing. Overall, I do not recommend this book...sorry. | ||
Futile. "Mother Courage and Her Children" is a repugnant play. With odious characters, a misguided plot, and pitiable dialogue, it's a marvel this play has survived the times. I would hate to see the play performed - pure torture. A waste of time, and I do not recommend. | ||