Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
27 used & new from £4.49
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
"Rhinoceros", "The Chairs", and "The Lesson"
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

"Rhinoceros", "The Chairs", and "The Lesson" (Paperback)

by Eugene Ionesco (Author), Derek Prowse (Translator), Donald Watson (Translator) "The scene is a square in a small provincial town ..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.30 (30%)
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 7? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
20 new from £4.91 7 used from £4.49
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £8.99 £8.99 9 used & new from £5.44
Mass Market Paperback 7 used & new from £13.73
Unknown Binding Order it used

Frequently Bought Together

"Rhinoceros", "The Chairs", and "The Lesson" + Spring Awakening (Methuen's Theatre Classics) (Modern Classics) + Blood Wedding (Drama Classics)
Price For All Three: £20.17

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Spring Awakening (Methuen's Theatre Classics) (Modern Classics)

Spring Awakening (Methuen's Theatre Classics) (Modern Classics)

by Frank Wedekind
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £8.49
Blood Wedding (Drama Classics)

Blood Wedding (Drama Classics)

by Federico Garcia Lorca
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £3.99
The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett

The Complete Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett

by Samuel Beckett
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £8.49
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Drama Classics)

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Drama Classics)

by Luigi Pirandello
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £3.79
A Doll's House (Dover Thrift)

A Doll's House (Dover Thrift)

by Henrik Ibsen
4.7 out of 5 stars (6) 
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (31 Aug 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141184299
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141184296
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.2 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 113,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
WWF - Adopt a Rhino
   wwf.org.uk/Rhino    Adopt a Rhino today from £3 per month and help protect their future 
Primary School Furniture
   www.e-quip4education.co.uk    e4e offer everything you need to equip your primary & nursery school 
Express Classroom Chairs
   www.officefurnitureonline.co.uk    Top UK Education Furniture Ranges Best Prices & Fast Free Delivery 
  
 

Product Description

Product Description
These three great plays by one of the founding fathers of the theatre of the absurd, are alive and kicking with tragedy and humour, bleakness and farce. In Rhinoceros we are shown the innate brutality of people as everyone, except for Berenger, turn into clumsy, unthinking rhinoceroses. The Chairs depicts the futile struggle of two old people to convey the meaning of life to the rest of humanity, while The Lesson is a chilling, but anarchically funny drama of verbal domination. In these three 'antiplays' dream, nonsense and fantasy combine to create an unsettling, bizarre view of society.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The scene is a square in a small provincial town. Read the first page
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
theater of the absurd
ionesco
eugene ionesco
critical theory
absurd

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

"Rhinoceros", "The Chairs", and "The Lesson"
90% buy the item featured on this page:
"Rhinoceros", "The Chairs", and "The Lesson" 4.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£7.69
Inside Rhinoceros 4
5% buy
Inside Rhinoceros 4
£33.99
The Theatre of the Absurd (Methuen Non-fiction) (Plays and Playwrights)
2% buy
The Theatre of the Absurd (Methuen Non-fiction) (Plays and Playwrights) 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£12.99
"The Bald Soprano", and Other Plays
2% buy
"The Bald Soprano", and Other Plays 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£8.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An stampede of "rhinoceros" ..., 11 Jan 2005
By Bel Alcat "bel_78" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Rhinoceros (French Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)
Euguene Ionesco (1912-1994) was born in Romania, but lived a great part of his life in France. He was an important exponent of what became known as "the Theatre of Absurd", a kind of avant garde theatre that was born more or less in the 1950s and that somehow manages to transmit a message through irrational speech and strange occurrences that take place in what seem at first glance as common situations. Other exponents of this kind of theatre are, for example, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter

"Rhinoceros" was written by Ionesco in 1958, and has a strange plot. The main character is Berenger, a Frenchman who likes to drink a lot. Berenger doesn't seem to mind when a rhinoceros first appears running past his town square, while he is talking with his friend Jean. Everybody else is astounded, but they are truly horrified when the same rhinoceros (or maybe another one) returns and even kills a cat. Even that doesn't shake Berenger, unfortunately. The situation is almost dramatically altered later, when Berenger realizes that many of his acquaintances are turning into rhinoceros without apparent reason. The pertinent questions are quite a few, for instance: will rhinoceros ultimately prevail?. And can an average person resist to conformity, or is the temptation to be like everybody else to big?.

This book can be understood as a metaphore regarding nazism and its diffusion in Germany, and has a lot to do with Ionesco's experiences with the Nazis. However, its main theme is the rise of totalitarism, the kind of behaviour and relativism that takes a country to that, and the dehumanization of those that succumb to conformism (like the human beings that slowly turn into rhinoceros, almost indistinguishable from each other). Due to that, "Rhinoceros" was considered a dangerous play by more than one totalitarism. For instance, the play was to be produced in the URSS, but the government wouldn't allow it to be played if Ionesco didn't say that the rhinoceros were the Nazis and not them. As Ionesco refused to do so, "Rhinoceros" couldn't be played...

On the whole, I can say that I really liked this play. It is interesting, easy to read (yes, without overly difficult vocabulary!!) and has a deeper meaning that shouldn't be lost to us. That is, conformity isn't the answer when an stampede of "rhinoceros" tries to run over us...

Belen Alcat

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Ionesco's satire on collective hysteria, 5 May 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Rhinoceros (Paperback)
Ionesco focuses on the dangers of mass, collective hysteria and asserts the need to remain stronger than others who are weak willed. The protagonist, Berenger, tries to resist the impending disease of 'rhinoceritis', as all those near to him succumb. He remains at the end a hero of defiance.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Three of the best plays from one master of absurd theatre., 19 Dec 2000
By A Customer
These plays are all three excellent works of absurd theatre. In Rhinoceros people keep changing to, you guessed it, rhino's, in The Chairs, you have chairs instead of actors on the stage and in The Lesson there is a problem with language and a quiet special teacher. It is hard to review these wonderful plays in such a short space. Ionesco loves to play with the language and its shortcomings. The absurd is there to make a point. It makes you see the obvious in a new light. Even 50 years later they feel more modern than what is written today. I recommend these plays to anyone that want to think, laugh and get bewildered. They will make you reconsider what you thought was the borders of theatre.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject












i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

More From Euge?ne Ionesco

The Chairs

The Chairs (Faber plays)

Ionesco's farce combines a comic portrait of human folly with an... Read more

 

Up to 53% off Braun Series Shavers

Braun Series 3 390cc Clean & Renew System Rechargeable Foil Electric Shaver
Get in touch with your smooth side with Braun Series shavers, now with Gillette blade technology.

›Discover Braun Series at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates