Plays 1: The Birthday Party, The Room, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, A Night Out, The Black and White, The Examina,Vol. 1 (Faber Contemporary Classics) Paperback – 10 Sept. 1996

Early Pinter seems so assured and confident-a rare confidence and consummate skill throughout this collection preparing the way for the subliminity of his middle period encapsulated in the majestic Homecoming !

After a brief nineteen page introduction a speech he made in 1962 about writing for the theatre, the book is exactly what it says on the cover: "Harold Pinter: Plays":"The Birthday Party""The Room""The Dumb Waiter""A Slight Ache""The Hothouse""A Night Out""The Black and White""The Examination".Pinter's plays are not to everyone's taste and really need to be seen, acted well, rather than read, although to study them at leisure, reading is obviously essential and these editions are ideal for that. Pinter's plays need to be acted well to make use of the selective pauses, "non sequiturs", over-lapping dialogue and non-verbal language. Fortunately, his plays attract good theatres and "actOrs" able to lift the script from the page.A mixture of very well-known and not so well-known plays, this edition contains a rich selection of his eerie, threatening, austere, normal, introspective worlds. On one page, forty-six pauses, one of his few directions - [Pause]. His characters always seem "involved", if that is the appropriate word, in a long series of disconnected conversations, lives which tangentially bump into one another, like bumper-cars at the fair - intimate contact but no communication."GUS - Yes, but what happens when we're not here? What do they do then?" ("The Dumb Waiter", P 135) Yes, readers, [Pause] what [Pause] then?

The Birthday Party was Pinter's first major play, and after a disastrous premiere soon established itself as a modern classic. The other plays in this volume are no less rewarding. The dialogue is a stunning achievement, inconsequential on the surface, but richly suggestive underneath -- of a world that is simultaneously absurd and menacing, and of characters who do not wish to communicate, and would not be able to, even if they wished. The heredity, through Beckett and Ionesco, all the way back to Maeterlinck, is manifest. Realism and symbolism are brilliantly combined.But isn't it about time that Faber and Faber did Pinter more justice? The volume is in a rigid binding that easily cracks, the paper is of poor quality, the print is thick and nasty, and the price is exorbitant -- though fortunately Amazon and its dealers are offering the book at well below the publisher's price. But surely the time has come for Faber and Faber to issue a new Collected Pinter, in the handsome format that is surely due to one of the greatest of English dramatists.

no remarks, everything as expected

I bought this for my niece thinking it was something to do with Harry Potter, but it's actually Harry Pinter. Needless to say my niece was quite disappointed as she was expecting magic and wizards and suchlike but got menacing pauses and underlying threats in run down boarding houses in seaside towns.Spoiler alert: Bumbledore dies at the end.

Well this 5/5 stars is not exactly reflecting the true quality of this book, as for a collection of best works, anything less would actually be a judgement not on this book but on Harold Pinter in general which is a discrace! We all know his value in the area of literature.I've been taught this book in the university and it has captured my interest since then. It's highly recommended

my love of Harold Pinter began at about 15, I played Stannley webber in an Acting peice, i thought it was weird, yet somehow fantastic. i picked this up at the local library, so i caould read the Birthday Party again, i read all teh others and was blown away. i love how he is able to turn the most ordinary of situations into these amazing peices of art. Pinter is GOD

I am STILL awating my order it has been nearly two weeks. this book is supposed to be for my A-level English class and im falling behind due to their none dispachal!this is ridiculus.Thanks a lot!!!!!