The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams's Greatest Creation
by Nancy Schoenberger
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2023
240 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
A penetrating consideration of Tennessee Williams's most enduring character—Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire—written by the co-author of The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters and Furious Love.
Ever since Jessica Tandy glided onto the stage in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1947, Blanche DuBois has fascinated generations of audiences worldwide and secured a place in the history of literature, theater, and film. One of Williams's greatest creations, Blanche has bedazzled, amused, and broken the hearts of generations of audiences. Before the Covid pandemic, the stage classic was performed somewhere in the world every hour. It has been adapted into a ballet and an opera, and it was satirized in an episode of The Simpsons. The final twelve words Blanche utters at the play's end—"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"—have taken on a life of their own. Endlessly fascinating, this indelible figment of one of America's greatest midcentury playwrights garners nearly universal interest—but why?
In Blanche, Nancy Schoenberger searches for the answer. An exploration of the cultural impact of Blanche DuBois, Schoenberger's absorbing study examines Tennessee Williams's most enduring creation through the performances of seven brilliant actresses who have taken on the role—Jessica Tandy, Vivien Leigh, Ann-Margret, Jessica Lange, Patricia Clarkson, Cate Blanchett, and Jemier Jackson—as well as the influence of the playwright's tragic sister, Rose Williams, the person he was most haunted and inspired by. In examining various Blanches from throughout the decades and their critical reception, Schoenberger analyzes how our perception and understanding of this mesmerizing figure has altered and deepened over time. Exploring themes of womanhood, sexuality, mental illness, and the idealized South, Blanche is an engrossing cultural history of a rich and complex character that sheds light on who we are.
Blanche includes 20-30 color and black-and-white photographs.
"A delightfully satisfying roundup for both longtime fans of Streetcar and newcomers." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Schoenberger's detailed account is packed with vibrant cultural specifics and trenchant analysis, and she keeps up a brisk pace that will have readers turning pages. Theater and pop culture fans, take note." —Publishers Weekly
"Nancy Schoenberger assembles quotes, anecdotes, and insights from several decades of performances to create a dazzling Blanche DuBois scrapbook. She provides not just a lively exploration of a character as rich as Hamlet (as more than one person says), but concise portraits of some extraordinary actresses and a social history of changing attitudes about acting, women, class, and race." —Chris Bram, author of Eminent Outlaws and Father of Frankenstein
This information about Blanche was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Poet and biographer Nancy Schoenberger is the author of Dangerous Muse: The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood. Schoenberger taught for many years at the College of William &Mary, where she directed the Creative Writing Program
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