The Life of the Drama (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book came out of a series of lectures on drama that Bentley gave at Harvard in 60/61.
It's broken down thusly -

Part I - Aspects of a Play
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Dialogue
4. Thought
5. Enactment

Part II - Different Kinds of Plays
6. Melodrama
7. Farce
8. Tragedy
9. Comedy
10. Tragicomedy

For each section Bentley uses a number and variety of examples, from the Greeks up to Brecht.

The book can be thought of as asking two questions - Why do we like drama? What makes for good drama?
Amongst the many answers -
We like to see an imitation of life.
We like the companionship, of the players and fellow audience members.
It's interesting to see other peoples take on the world and life.

Bentley presents some big ideas but at the same time it was a fun read. He's got some strong opinions but he makes good cases for them. Virtually every page had something that made me think. The overall tone is that of an intelligent man talking frankly and directly with someone he considers equally intelligent.

He's erudite, anti-pedantic, and controversial (maybe counter-intuitive is a better term).

Here's an example of Bentley's erudition, from page 348 of the paperback -
"At the end of Balzac's play Mercadet, a certain Godeau arrives with money to solve everyone's problems; and at the end of Beckett's play the God of the Old or the New Testament could arrive to solve everyone's problems. That would be a happy ending indeed. That "Godot" does not come is what makes the play a parable of life as seen by modern man."

Here's some controversial/counter-intuitive stuff:
"The head office of all the education systems in the world is in Madison avenue." pg 349.
"In Praise of Self-Pity" - section in Melodrama chapter.
"In Praise of Types" - section in Character chapter.
"Without violence, there would be nothing in the world but goodness, and literature is not mainly about goodness: it is mainly about badness." page 221.

In sum, this is a very accomplished book about drama that is highly readable and offers a banquet of food for thought.

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Product Description:
"Eric Bentley's radical new look at the grammar of theatre...is a work of exceptional virtue...CENTRAL, INDISPENSABLE...The book justifies its title by being precisely about the ways in which life manifests itself in the theatre...THIS IS A BOOK TO BE READ AGAIN AND AGAIN." - Frank Kermode, The New York Review of Books

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