Pinter's Complete Works

Harold Pinter has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential playwrights in contemporary theatre; his arresting and original works have left a lasting imprint on the development of the stage and screen while delighting audiences around the world. This, the first of four volumes, contains his first five plays, including The Birthday Party (1958), his first full-length drama; as well as two short stories-"The Black and White" and "The Examination"-both written before Pinter turned to the theatre. Pinter's exacting and complex use of language and the features that mark his "comedies of menace" are clearly realized in these plays and stories. His speech "Writing for the Theatre" introduces the volume and establishes the context for those early years. Includes: • The Birthday Party • The Room • The Dumb Waiter • A Slight Ache • A Night Out • "The Black and White" • "The Examination" • "Writing for the Theatre"

Along with Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter holds an undisputed place in the front ranks of contemporary dramatists. In volume two of his collected works, the plays and revue sketches mark a period of transition, as Pinter's characters and settings become more recognizably realistic, in contrast to the absurdist atmosphere of his earlier work. The Caretaker, which first brought him fame on both sides of the Atlantic, was called a play of strangely compelling beauty and passion by Howard Taubman of The New York Times. An essay by Pinter, Writing for Myself, introduces this collection.

This is the third volume of the collected works of Harold Pinter, who is regarded by many as the foremost playwright in the English language today. Featured are The Homecoming, one of Pinter's best-known works, along with three other plays, six revue sketches, and a short story.

Dramatist, scriptwriter, short story writer, novelist, poet, director, and actor, Harold Pinter has earned universal praise for his distinctive style and imagination. In this, the most recent of four volumes, Pinter's work echoes many of his earlier themes and techniques-struggles for power and an ambience of menace-while finding fresh subject matter and means to express his changing dramatic vision. This volume contains three of Pinter's most famous plays, including Old Times, which Clive Barnes called "a joyous, wonderful play that people will talk about as long as we have theater"; a television play, Monologue; and a radio piece, Family Voices. Includes: *Old Times * No Man's Land * Betrayal * Monologue * Family Voices.