The Iceman Cometh Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Eugene O’Neill was the first American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He completed The Iceman Cometh in 1939, but he delayed production until after the war, when it enjoyed a long run of performances in 1946 after receiving mixed reviews. Three years after O'Neill's death, Jason Robards starred in a Broadway revival that brought new critical attention to O’Neill’s darkest and most nihilistic play. In the half century since, The Iceman Cometh has gained enormously in stature, and many critics now recognize it as one of the greatest plays in American drama. The Iceman Cometh focuses on a group of alcoholics and misfits who endlessly discuss but never act on their dreams, and Hickey, the traveling salesman determined to strip them of their pipe dreams.
File Size: 479 KB
Print Length: 148 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publication Date: November 22, 2012
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00AF17K9S
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Not Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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This play makes you think....think about your own life. The action centers around a group of 'down and out'ers in a dive bar for career drunks, located in 1920s New York. The plot develops when Hickey, a long-time occasional visitor, returns, and tries to encourage these ne'er do wells to improve their lives.A great play, with fantastic speeches and vivid imagery. The characters are colorful, and use a lot of language, and the subject matter of the play may offend more sensitive readers. This play is thought-provoking, and made me think about the direction of my own life, and the lies I tell myself about why I can't/won't do some things to make my life better...and where I may end up if I don't change my own direction....which seems to be the author's intent.This play is definitely worth the read, with few weaknesses, if any, to list. Entertaining, thought-provoking, colorful, and serious. Occasionally funny, but very interesting.If this review was helpful to you, I'd appreciate your indication below. Thanks!
One of the greatest plays ever written. As good as anything by Sam Beckett.I'd seen the play decades ago, the version with Lee Marvin as Hickey and Fredric March as Harry Hope. Robert Ryan stole that show. Excellent version, almost as good as the one with Jason Robards. Laid out here in written format is very good as well.There are all kinds of critics that branded this play as pessimistic..... Illusions, delusions, loss of courage, guilt and insanity and the rest of the human condition are covered pretty well by O'Neill. He had compassion for his characters in this play because he knew these types and he was one......Conversation and dialogue by misfits and losers in a seedy bar in New York in 1912 may not appeal to people today but if you are the type of person looking for the truth in art...you'll find it here....
Really enjoyed this story, it is unpredictable and speaks on human nature in an unusual/original way. I love less than dashing characters and this story is chock full. It really gets to the dark parts of the human psyche. How we dilute ourselves, use each other and succumb to the worst part of ourselves more often than we all would like to admit. I'm in my late 30s now and could relate to the idea of just 'giving up' moreso than when I was younger. I probably would like this less if I read this as a teenager or in my early 20s. You need to have lived a bit and been truly disappointed in life before you can relate to the material fully.
A classic drama -- must read for every literate English language speaker. This play, like others written by Eugene O'Neill, began the modern era of stage plays. He was a genius, his plays are treasures in the world's collection of valuable human endeavors.
I first read Iceman as part of a high school senior English lit course 50 years ago. Given that this was written in the 1930s but is set in 1912, one can see O'Neill's disappointment with the American Communist movement embodied by his friends John Reed, Emma Goldman and Louise Bryant. This play should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the movie "Reds".
This is truly one of the greatest plays ever written. But it is either very depressing or a glimpse of reality. That is a decision you must make for yourself. Frankly for me it's the latter . Since I don't drink, I felt pity for the characters. The major decision you must make after reading the play is whether having "pipe dreams" are good or bad.
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