Thursday, April 7, 2011

Book 82: The Crucible and Book Stats.

Title: The Crucible
Author: Arthur Miller (1915-2005)

First Published/Performed: 1953
My Edition: Penguin (seen at right)
Pages: 143

Other Works Include: All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), and A View from the Bridge (1955/1956)

I have already read Miller's Death of a Salesman and reviewed it (it was Book 31), so I am familiar with his work. I read this one back in high school as a sophomore and loved it. Now that I know a little more about the history surrounding the play and McCarthyism, I am hoping to pull more from it as I go.

In addition, I am also teaching this one to my sophomore English students. We're going to be reading it out loud (they each have a part and I am playing the narrator), so it should be a fun experience for all of us. I am looking forward to their reactions to the witchcraft and court proceedings, as well as making connections for them between the McCarthy era (which we just covered in U.S. history) and the proceedings in Salem. It should be enriching and fun! :)

Have you read this one before? What did you think?

Has anyone seen this live-acted? I really want to!

9 comments:

  1. It's been years since I read this one, early high school I think. I would love to see it live!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went to a performing arts school and I was part of the drama program. We did The Crucible my freshman year. I was on the crew and so I can't even count how many times I've seen it. It was a great production, so this play has always been special to me. We had some really talented people in it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I saw it at my secondary (high) school- some of my sister's friends were in it and it was pretty good! I totally didn't get any of the McCarthyism stuff when I saw it though, so when I read it last year it was pretty eye-opening! It is awesome though :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 10th grade, I think it was. Which means I remember squat. :-D

    ReplyDelete
  5. I had to read this for junior English in high school. It was definitely interesting to learn about the McCarthyism that tied in to this, but I didn't actually feel the power of the play until the second time I saw it performed live, about a year later. I guess I was a slow learner!

    (Oh, and I decided to at least attempt to participate in the read-a-thon on Saturday!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I did a paper in high school comparing the original play & the movie script (since he wrote both)! I remember it being a pretty fun paper, so I must've enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read this for a college English class in the last few years. Loved it. One of the few books I could re-read. Hope you enjoy teaching it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i should reread this. I've read it many times and seen it live at least once.

    ReplyDelete
  9. My english teacher showed us this article on the Crucible today on this wordpress blog. I think it gives a good insight into the story itself. Here's the link if you want to check it out.
    http://wordsthatbind.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/a-look-into-the-crucible/

    ReplyDelete