Jan 11, 2018 - Even famed playwright Arthur Miller's estate is whirlwind of emotions. Revolves around more than 160 boxes of Miller's manuscripts and writings. The Ransom Center matched the price, but refused to go higher, citing.
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Years after an angry breakup, Victor and Walter Franz are reunited by the death of their father. As they sort through his possessions in an old brownstone attic, the memories evoked by his belongings stir up old hostilities. The Price was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best play.
Published April 2nd 1985 by Penguin Books (first published April 1st 1968)
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Best of Arthur Miller 92 books — 7 voters
Literature of Social Change 421 books — 321 voters
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Jun 22, 2019Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: 20th-century, drama, plays, classic, fiction
The Price: A Play, Arthur Miller
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. Years after an angry breakup, Victor and Walter Franz are reunited by the death of their father. As they sort through his possessions in an old brownstone attic, the memories evoked by his belongings stir up old hostilities. The Price was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best play.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و سوم ماه می سال 201...more
The Price is a 1968 play by Arthur Miller. It is about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. Years after an angry breakup, Victor and Walter Franz are reunited by the death of their father. As they sort through his possessions in an old brownstone attic, the memories evoked by his belongings stir up old hostilities. The Price was nominated for two Tony Awards, including best play.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و سوم ماه می سال 201...more
Dec 14, 2015J.M. rated it really liked it
December of Drama 2015, day fourteen
'Well you live, and you die. Didn't mean a thing.
Didn't you just waste all your time?'
--Modern Castles, by Digital Leather
It's not every review that I open with a lyric, but that one seemed appropriate. This must be Arthur Miller's most pessimistic play, and it's great. Everything from the brevity to the set design amplifies the dramatic impact of the climax, and then the denouement-- a return to the absurd normalcy of denial-- seems painfully realistic. I ha...more
'Well you live, and you die. Didn't mean a thing.
Didn't you just waste all your time?'
--Modern Castles, by Digital Leather
It's not every review that I open with a lyric, but that one seemed appropriate. This must be Arthur Miller's most pessimistic play, and it's great. Everything from the brevity to the set design amplifies the dramatic impact of the climax, and then the denouement-- a return to the absurd normalcy of denial-- seems painfully realistic. I ha...more
Aug 02, 2017Theresa rated it liked it
I usually enjoy Arthur Miller's work, but this one didn't really work for me.
The Price is a two act play that takes place in the same scene. Victor and Esther Franz are selling off furniture that once belonged to Victor's father. When his brother Walter shows up, the play takes a turn from talking about the monetary price, and the metaphorical one we pay for the ones we love.
The book was just a play about three angry characters that felt scorned by each of the other ones. Solomon was just trying...more
The Price is a two act play that takes place in the same scene. Victor and Esther Franz are selling off furniture that once belonged to Victor's father. When his brother Walter shows up, the play takes a turn from talking about the monetary price, and the metaphorical one we pay for the ones we love.
The book was just a play about three angry characters that felt scorned by each of the other ones. Solomon was just trying...more
It really makes you think about life and the events we go through...
Oct 30, 2016Sookie rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Miller puts his characters right at the brink of tragedy and rakes up a confrontation where the involved people are at their most vulnerable. Having lost their father, Walter and Victor reunite after decade of silence and go toe-to-toe with the choices they ended up making over the course of their lives.
The play starts with a furniture appraiser trying to make way with a lesser quote as Victor explains the pieces owned by his parents. Quickly understanding the dynamic between Victor and his wif...more
The play starts with a furniture appraiser trying to make way with a lesser quote as Victor explains the pieces owned by his parents. Quickly understanding the dynamic between Victor and his wif...more
Sep 13, 2014Steven rated it really liked it
'The Price' of the title is the legacy of the past. The past is dotted with choices, and the results of these choices govern the present.
'You have to make decisions,' as one of the characters says here, 'and you never know what's what until it's too late.'
'You have to make decisions,' as one of the characters says here, 'and you never know what's what until it's too late.'
Mar 06, 2017Doug rated it liked it · review of another edition
3.5 This is one of the few Miller plays I hadn't read or seen, but the imminent Broadway revival impelled me to check it out. Am actually a bit surprised any producers would venture to mount it these days (although both recent NYC Miller revivals did well, I guess). The work, although a classic example of the 'well-made play', is very talky and didactic, and a wee bit inscrutable, as people talk AROUND the main issues without them ever becoming crystal clear (at least to me) ... but I guess they...more
Mar 07, 2019Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma rated it it was ok
People who love money don’t give it away.
When our parents die. This novel is about when our parents die. Siblings turn against each other because of money. Others use it as the time to catch up and see one another. Depressing. The scene opens with Victor and Esther. The former has not talked with his brother for 16 years. Walter, that is his brother’s name. He is successful, influential, and selfish. He is the one who does not give money away easily. Family dynamics. Esther is Victor’s wife...more
'The Price' is my favorite of all the plays I've read by Arthur Miller thus far. Within this drama, the characters are flawed, contradictory, disturbed, frustrated, in denial, good, and bad. Because I'm the same age as the protagonist / antagonist, Victor, I viscerally relate to the dilemma / mid-life crisis he's experiencing. Is it too late for that second chance--too late for Victor to actually make something of himself as he conceived when he was young and not so disillusioned? There's not mu...more
Jul 12, 2013Barbara rated it really liked it
In this two-act play, brothers Victor and Walter Franz, estranged for sixteen years, meet to dispose of their parents' belongings; the setting is the attic of a brownstone slated for demolition, peripheral characters are Esther, Victor's wife, and Gregory Solomon, the aging dealer who has come to make them an offer for the furniture.
Walter and Victor have led very different lives, the former as a wealthy and successful surgeon, the latter as a police officer struggling to make ends meet. But Vic...more
Walter and Victor have led very different lives, the former as a wealthy and successful surgeon, the latter as a police officer struggling to make ends meet. But Vic...more
Sep 29, 2011Connie G rated it liked it
This play is about two brothers who come together to sell the family furniture to an antique dealer in Manhattan after their father's death. Victor is a policeman who gave up his college education in science to take care of his father after the stock market crash. Walter is a successful doctor who went on with his schooling, contributed almost nothing to help his father, but felt that his father had plenty of savings that he was not touching. Each brother is looking at the past and their father'...more
This play explores the humanity of the two brothers who both come from different moral dilemmas. What each want is to reclaim the opportunities lost to time and to shake off the regret and guilt that they both harbor. That's impossible of course, so in the face of this impossibility they rage at each other to avoid the crushing reality of the harsh truth.
I would love to see this play performed.
I would love to see this play performed.
When a family member dies, the items left over represent more than just furniture and knickknacks. For Victor and his brother Walter, there was a price paid for everything but the cost was much more significant. The two must overcome their bitterness in order to settle the estate of their dead parents but they find that the past has a way of creeping into the present in life-altering ways.
Jan 14, 2013Delaney Dixon rated it really liked it
When first introduced to this play I had dangerously assumed that it would be an easy read and concluded that the material was too 'on the surface' to enjoy. Once I read it, however, I discovered I was completely wrong. This play is intellectually enticing, displaying the complex family relationships in humanity and their changed after the Great Depression.
Mar 24, 2013Lysergius rated it really liked it · review of another edition
In a soon to be demolished family house, two brothers meet after many years to dispose of their dead parent's property. The resulting confrontation leads them to examine the events and qualities of their very different lives and the price that each of them has had to pay.
I didn't actually read it, I saw the play. It's a good play that makes us think of what really matters in life. Is it the career? Is it family? Is it money? What is it?
:) Good job, Mr. Miller!
:) Good job, Mr. Miller!
A great play for two men. A tale of lost brotherly love, expectations lost, and unknown responsibilities. Throw in a 90 year old Russian-Jew for laughs and you got yourself an entertaining read.
Apr 14, 2017Morgan rated it liked it · review of another edition
I found the plot in this one a little boring, but I liked it because there were only four characters in the play. Reading wise, this makes it easier for me to follow.
Jul 17, 2019Mark Gonzalez rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Walter is not a bad guy, he just took the bet that 50% of us would make. He looked out for himself. Took the gamble, felt bad, but he made the choice that was best for him--and the choice that was most sensible. Victor, on the other hand, the other 50%, just fell for the trick that the world plays on us. A lot of us would fall for it, trying to keep sane by rationalizing the wrong decision with the right delusion.
Unlike Victor, most of us wouldn't even think about it; but the ones who do, they'...more
Unlike Victor, most of us wouldn't even think about it; but the ones who do, they'...more
Jun 12, 2017Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition
The honest conversations are the most difficult to have and just as difficult to hear, but Arthur Miller makes his characters so approachable.
May 28, 2007Ali rated it it was ok
Most of Arthur miller’s plays such as “A View from the Bridge”, “The Crucible”, “All My Sons”, “Death of a Salesman” etc. are categorized as modern tragedies; the struggles of the everyday man; focusing on the dark side of the American dream. “All my Sons” is a classic play, about guilt, responsibility, and the relationship between father and sons in the aftermath of a World War II corruption, when two brothers dispose of their parents' estate, their divergent attitudes and dispositions become i...more
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I would give this book 3-1/2 stars if I could. I have been to many, many plays over the years and kept thinking in the back of my mind in regards to Act One, how uneventful, how unexciting and how would it possibly fill up 2 hours or even the 1-1/2 hours on stage? But into the Second Act, it all came together. We learn the complexes of the character's relationships with one another, with their father, with their wives and why it is what it is today because of what took place in their past. It wa...more
Touching, hilarious and very very sharp. The first act feels more light-hearted than the second but it sets the scene well for the take down of family narratives and justifications - the choices we make and the way we justify them, weaving them into a lifetime of narrative. We saw a great production of this in Seattle.
The Polish furniture dealer adds much comedy, but also welds the knife:
'My boy, you don't know the psychology! It it wouldn't break there is no more possibilities. For instance, y...more
The Polish furniture dealer adds much comedy, but also welds the knife:
'My boy, you don't know the psychology! It it wouldn't break there is no more possibilities. For instance, y...more
I re read this and am still of the opinion there is too much talking about the past between the characters instead of concentrating of the now. Two brothers meet to dispose of their late father's belongings to a dealer. The brothers have their own versions of events concerning the finances of their father as Victor a policeman didn't have the chance his brother Walter did to go to college. Esther is Victor's wife and it feels at times she is a sounding board for Solomon the dealer and Victor. On...more
After reading more than 5 plays by Miller, I have noticed a very common recurring theme of plot. The typical broken American family of the depression era, struggling to make ends meet, the father having to make unethical (and sometimes selfish) decisions to put bread on the table, and in the process damaging his family or even losing a few sons (always sons, never daughters with Miller).
I think most people won't like Miller unless they can relate to his characters and his themes in some way. The...more
I think most people won't like Miller unless they can relate to his characters and his themes in some way. The...more
Feb 24, 2007Asa Merritt rated it liked it · review of another edition
Clean and well-written. Three of the four characters emerge vividly, especially a 90 year old ex-navy furniture appraiser. The play's heart lies in the relationship of two brothers who have been estranged for sixteen years. Unfortunately, these men feel like men of Millers generation, and the spirit of their emotional lives feels dated. You can't argue with Miller though, so it's worth the read.
Jul 28, 2011Phillip rated it liked it
This play took a while to really get interesting, but I think the last portion is quite good. I liked the character of Solomon, even though the portrayal of an Eastern European Jewish furniture dealer was a bit stereotypical.
Denial, emotional baggage, decisions and their consequences, persuasions (conscience and subconscious)! Themes are always more or less same in his plays but psychological depth into the characters is undeniable
Aug 29, 2011Laura Verret rated it liked it
This is the best play I've read by Miller.
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Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American literature and cinema for over 61 years, writing a wide variety of plays, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are still studied and performed worldwide. Miller was often in the public eye, most famously for refusing to g...more
![The Price Arthur Miller Manuscript The Price Arthur Miller Manuscript](http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/theater/images/miller/miller-case-2.jpg)
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Published 9:50 AM EST Nov 17, 2014
High bidders will soon be able to own a piece of the Marilyn Monroe mystique.
The iconic bombshell's intimate letters and property, including a 'heartbreaking' letter from her soon-to-be ex-husband, baseball great Joe DiMaggio, go to auction Dec. 5 and 6 at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, Calif., as part of The Lost Archive of Marilyn Monroe collection.
'Don't know what you're (sic) thoughts are about me, — but I can tell you I love you sincerely, — way deep in my heart, irregardless of anything,' DiMaggio writes in one of the letters up for auction, postmarked Oct. 9, 1954, according to the official auction handbook.
DiMaggio wrote the letter to Monroe, addressing it 'Dear Baby,' right after watching her public announcement on Oct. 6 that they were divorcing, which he describes seeing. The letter is expected to go for $2,000-$4,000 at auction.
Other letters that make up the 200-deep collection reference the DiMaggio divorce: Jane Russell tells of rumors and advises Monroe not to 'make mistakes.' A letter from Sid Ross includes the advice, 'don't be the baseball; be the bat.' Letters from actor Tom Neal and photographer Sam Shaw also reference the high-profile uncoupling.
The Lost Archive also contains a substantial collection of love letters from playwright Arthur Miller, Monroe's third husband. A small, handwritten love letter reads, 'I am deeply happy. And agonized that you're not in reach.' He signs it 'A.' Many letters are dated 1956, and the most expensive projection is for an undated, hand-written letter from Monroe to Miller that is expected to fetch $4,000 to $6,000.
Monroe died of an overdose in 1962, at age 36.
Aside from myriad correspondences, photographs and contact sheets, the collection of more than 300 items includes physical relics of Monroe's life that range from the actress's personal copy of a Misfits behind-the-scenes film ($10,000-$20,000) to her partially used Johnson & Johnson eyelash glue ($800-$1,200).
Other notable items that will be auctioned, with catalog descriptions:
• 'Marilyn's favorite coat': 'A Marilyn Monroe fawn colored silk overcoat with black velvet collar details and apricot satin lining. … Monroe's affection for this coat is documented by many photos of her wearing it during the years 1956-1959.' $80,000-$120,000
• Black velvet dress: 'A Marilyn Monroe black silk velvet dress believed to be the dress worn by Monroe to the 1956 Prince and the Showgirl press conference with Laurence Oliver at the Plaza hotel in New York.' $40,000-$60,000
• Cecil Beaton Triptych: 'The center frame houses a black and white silver gelatin print of the portrait Cecil Beaton took of Monroe in 1956. This image is purported to be Monroe's favorite image of herself.' $30,000-$40,000
• Marilyn Monroe brassiere: 'A Marilyn Monroe nude-colored underwire brassiere with mesh-lined cups. Label reads 'Hollywood/ Vassarette/ V-Ette/ Debutante/ Style1225/Size 36C/ Price $5.95.' $6,000=$8,000
• Arthur Miller manuscript: 'An Arthur Miller typed manuscript sent to Marilyn Monroe. The seven page draft of an article that Miller wrote for LIFE magazine is about his then wife and the series of photographs she took with Richard Avedon posing as five different actresses: Lillian Russell, Marlene Dietrich, Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Theda Bara.' $5,000-$7,000
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Published 9:50 AM EST Nov 17, 2014