Harold Pinter

Born in London in 1930, Harold Pinter holds an undisputed place in the front ranks of contemporary playwrights. These two plays, Party Time and The New World Order, work in chilling tandem, each demonstrating the inevitable brutality that comes with a total conviction of right. Party Time is a terrifying portrait of the culpable indifference of a privileged class, of the cruelty engendered in its members by political disruption, and of their merciless...

Set in postwar Britain, the novel describes the intertwined lives and concerns of four young Londoners.

The Caretaker was Harold Pinter's first successful play, first staged in 1960 in London. The play is a subtle exploration of madness, power, and the inertia at the core of many people's lives. But because The Caretaker is such a subtle piece of theatre, it might be worth recapping the plot of the play (if we can call it a 'plot' as such) before proceeding to an analysis of its themes. The dumb waiter: Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement...

A night out is the story of a young man who tries to break his ties with his mother ; Night school is a drama of interlocking subterfuge ; the Revue sketches are portraits of ordinary people.

"A black comedy set in a government-run mental institution, The Hothouse revolves around a sinister murder plot hatched against a backdrop of corruption, sexual favors, and hopeless bureaucratic ineptitude. Beneath the surface comedy there are frightening implications concerning a bureaucracy ostensibly dedicated to humanitarian concerns, but where people are referred to by numbers and forgotten as easily as troublesome figures on a balance sheet....

"Set in an unnamed country, [this play] consists of four brief prison scenes. In the first, a group of women visitors wait outside all day to see their imprisoned menfolk, savaged by guard dogs and insulted by the military. We then move inside for more intimate glimpses of the inhuman regime: the prohibition of the prisoner's native language; a young wife catching sight of her battered husband; streams of bludgeoning insults like blows to the face;...

When Fanny Price is sent away to live with her rich cousins, she's meant to learn the ways of proper society but manages to enlighten them as well.

"A pampered playboy acquires an elegant townhouse complete with a dedicated man servant. But when the young man's fiancè becomes suspicious of the servant's intentions, he and his 'sister' thrust the household into a sinister game where seduction is corruption and power becomes the most shocking desire of all."--Container.

"A parallel narrative of a Victorian-era gentleman and the social outcast he risks everything to love, and of the contemporary actors cast in those roles and immersed in their own forbidden affair." --