Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Our Town

by Thornton Wilder, Donald Margulies (Foreword), Tappan Wilder (Afterword)

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 17,983 ratings · 703 reviews

Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the town of Grover 's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

It is now reissued in this handsome hardcover edition, featuring a new Foreword by Donald Marg...more

Paperback, 181 pages

Published September 23rd 2003 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published 1938)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Best Plays Ever

25th out of 455 books — 527 voters

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Best American Plays

7th out of 169 books — 193 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 18, 2013 Ted rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Ghosts of Belfast review, Part IV
Part I http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Part II http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Part III http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The Troubles, continued
(view spoiler)...more

5 likes · like · see review

Nov 19, 2011 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Goodbye, Grover’s Corners

I saw a really terrible movie this weekend called "Stardust". I thought that it would be terrific since the cast is star-studded and mostly because it was based on a novel by the very clever Neil Gaiman (who I am a big fan of, Sandman, American Gods, Good Omens & the "Brakiri Day of the Dead" episode of Babylon 5 for fans in the know). But alas, the movie sucked (although Deniro was funny. Yarg!!).

But the movie also stars Claire Daines who I used to be a big fan of i...more

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 05, 2007 Anthony rated it 5 of 5 stars

American playwriting at its best. I think the most stunning thing is that this book manages to convey a deep sense of human tragedy without portraying people who rabidly abuse each other. This is also why many hack directors (not to mention high schools) have been able to produce the work as a saccharine fairytale, and the bad reputation of this play can certainly be attributed to these careless people. But you, my dear critical thinker--you should read this.

17 likes · like · see review

Jul 12, 2010 Amber Tucker rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: disappointments, plays-plays-me, why-is-this-classic-again

Okay, first of all – because people will criticize me for it, and rightly so – I have not seen this play. I fully appreciate that plays are written in order to be viewed on stage, not on page, and that people who judge a play after merely reading it are probably the bane of a playwright's life. That said, I feel that if there's any play that's could be "seen" just as well in the mind of the reader, it's Our Town.. From the setting to the plot to the characters' actions, the entire thing is almo...more Okay, first of all – because people will criticize me for it, and rightly so – I have not seen this play. I fully appreciate that plays are written in order to be viewed on stage, not on page, and that people who judge a play after merely reading it are probably the bane of a playwright's life. That said, I feel that if there's any play that's could be "seen" just as well in the mind of the reader, it's Our Town.. From the setting to the plot to the characters' actions, the entire thing is almost austerely minimalistic, in a way that doesn't require strenuous use of the imagination. Which I did enjoy about this reading/mental viewing experience, since I felt guilty about not having seen it.

Another thing I liked in this play is the continual communication with the audience. The Stage Manager is, I guess, some metaphorical stand-in for an angel, able to appear among us without our recognizing it, to play different roles among us (i.e. the Mr. Morgan and the minister), and able to deliver a transcendental tones for the humans keen enough to hear him. That type of narrator must have been innovative for the play's time, and I like what Wilder did with that.

The most impassioned response I could stir up at the ending, however, was a raised eyebrow. I feel Wilder started off with an intriguing set-up, and proceeded to careen downhill. He did exactly what any self-respecting reader was predicting he'd do. Yes, I should keep in mind that it was first produced and published in 1938. In context, I suppose the qualities of this play mean a lot more than they do today. But as to one critic's claim that he has "transmuted the simple events of human life into universal reverie," I simply fail to grasp any genuine artistic profundity here. He's trying, he really is; you can tell in many places. But I just don't think he pulls it off. Example: the ending references to the stars. "My boy Joel was a sailor, - knew 'em al. He'd set on the porch by evenings an' tell 'em all by name. Yes, sir - wonderful!" "A star's mighty good company." "Yes, yes 'tis." Sorry, but am I the only one who sees something that's trying to be Profound, and achieves only a scrabbling Pathetic?

I appreciate that he's trying to show how life is art, or should be seen as art. The "live-every-moment-as-though-it-were-your-last" sort of message is obvious enough, and it's not lost on me; many of my favourite-ever works of literature, vis. art and theatre share the same "point." And in its overwhelming (or rather underwhelming) simplicity, the entire play in every aspect is a challenge to the viewer to remember that the simple moments deserve our full attention. At the same time, even with a killer cast, I have a hard time picturing this play as something to stay in the mind for more than an hour afterwards. I would like to watch it someday. Still, there's plenty that make me appreciate life-as-art a heck of a lot more than this American classic has done.(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Feb 05, 2009 Melissa Rudder rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: teach-it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Since I read plays out loud in the classes I teach, this was my (fourth and) fifth time reading Thornton Wilder's Our Town in a little over a year. I was achingly bored in the first act but, as always, once I reached the end, it was worth it.

This may be the only piece of literature that I am drawn to primarily (and almost exclusively) by its well-executed theme. Thematic elements of literature are extremely important to me, but most books lure me in with their characterization or plot or languag...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 10, 2009 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-that-altered-my-life, plays

I have read this book too many times to count. It is amazingly ageless and speaks to each generation. I was priviledged to see Paul Newman open as the Stage Manager on opening night in Wesport,CT. I read quotes from it at my younger sister's funeral. I carries a lot of weight with me. Read the book before you ever see a high school production!

5 likes · like · see review

Dottie Wow. But the warning in the last line is too late -- a high school production of this is how I came to it. The production of the high school I attende...more
Apr 10, 2009 11:27pm

Joseph I read Our Town ages ago also, but I'll never forget how I felt when I read it for the first time. I still feel that way when I re-read it, as I occas...more I read Our Town ages ago also, but I'll never forget how I felt when I read it for the first time. I still feel that way when I re-read it, as I occasionally do when I've become weary of viewing some of the writing that has caught the attention of so many recently. You can hardly blame people today. Things are pretty difficult.Still, I often wonder why those who are looking to escape, don't more often choose to escape into something, rather than away from it.That's one of the beauties of great writing;the ability to bring us closer to what it is that makes us human; so alike beyond height or weight or color.

I think we are the only species that knows our short adventure will one day come to pass. I doubt a salmon swimming upstream recognizes it.I'll wager that he is merely drawn,unthinking,upstream in pursuit of sex.

I think that's why you need the Stage Manager in Our Town.Why you need him to quietly enter, stage right, and speak impassively, as if he has done so a thousand times already, and for him to tell us about the archaeology of Grovers Corners, its ethnic and religious make -up, it's population and voting habits, as if anything about those staid statistics could give us any more that a glimpse of what it is that makes George or Emily(or you or I)whatever it is that makes us both unique and identical.

The years have blurred some of the images, but not all. Not Emily telling George(as only a friend can) that he has become conceited and it is not flattering to him to have become so. Or,the picture of breakfast lights going on in a thousand homes, where the occupants have never heard of the Webbs or the Gibbs and yet are so much like them in all the important ways.
Of course, it ends in a cemetery. It has to.Where else could it end after a birth in Pole town, and a marriage, and another birth and another.

Is there any image more moving than the one evoked by the recently departed Simon Stimson, the town drunk,(every town has at least one!) where he begs Emily not to return from the dead on even the most inconsequential day , having learned for himself that even the most insignificant day on Earth is too beautiful to bear.

Some pretty wonderful stuff. On a pretty wonderful day. Happy Easter.

(less)
updated Apr 15, 2009 06:42am

Mjm My only critique of Newman production is the accents are all over the place ;) but the man makes a top-notch stage manager!

[Caveat—for those who were...more
Feb 27, 2013 07:33pm

Apr 14, 2007 Lydia rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: drama

A timeless masterpiece!This is absolutely my favorite play. It is timeless and universal, pertaining to anyone, anywhere. The story takes place in a small town at the turn of the century, in 1901, and takes place over the course of about fourteen years. The story line is extremely simplistic, but allows the reader to focus on the deeper themes that author, Thorton Wilder, is able to display. The play has three acts that each represent daily life, love and marriage, and death. Living people are p...more

4 likes · like · see review

Feb 09, 2009 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved how short it was! As a busy mother, I found it refreshing to be able to read our Book Club book of the month early in the month (instead of staying up to the wee hours of the morning just before Book Club). It was a nice story, but I am anxious to hear some insights from the "English majors" in our group as to any underlying meaning I may have missed.

1 like · like · see review

Virginia I am also interested in seeing what others have to say about the play. Somehow it is simple yet universal. It touches our created impression that all...more
Feb 23, 2009 12:40pm

Mjm wrote:

Arguably the only play in English since Shakespeare to stand alongside the great tragedies. Reaching the emotional depths of KING LEAR, OUR TOWN...more
Feb 27, 2013 11:55pm

Jan 30, 2010 Abby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-recommendations, made-me-cry, for-school, plays, pulitzer

A very good play. Though I have not seen the play performed, reading the script is still an effective way to experience it. Wilder was very thoughtful in arranging the script; it is all together extremely well-crafted. The characters and events seem so honest, the people so real. The play is a glimpse of life, and a commentary on living. It is emotional and tender, but with enough honesty and objectivity to avoid any feeling of tragedy. I could not help but think about my own family while readin...more

1 like · like · see review

May 28, 2009 Rachel Marie added it

For my English final, I had to read the play Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. This play is extremely easy to read. It only consists of three acts and all of the acts are simple. The play is introduced by the stage manager, telling about the imaginary characters and town. Throughout the play there is no set, including no props on the stage. When they go upstairs they are merely climbing up a latter. All through this play the characters are going about their daily routines. The play portrays their li...more

like · see review

Apr 05, 2013 Bryce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thorton Wilder's book "Our Town" is a must read that was published in 1938. It is set in New Hampshire, Grovers Corners which is an average size town that represents much that an average life in town would. The book is split up into three acts. Characters throughout the book are: George Gibbs, stage manager, emily webb, dr. gibbs, mrs. gibbs, mrs. soames, mr. webb, simon stimson, wally webb, rebacca gibbs, Joe crowell jr., howie newsome, professor willard, si cowell, sam craig, constable warren,...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 04, 2013 Audrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama-and-like, books-read-in-2013

I’ll open with a disclaimer - I’m terrible at writing about things, most of all books, but I’ve promised myself that I’d write more this year and I suppose it can only get better from here.

Our Town was one of those books that was part of our high school sophomore lit curriculum, which meant that on any given day there’d be 50-100 students roaming the halls, complaining about how dull and insipid it was, and bemoaning how they had to spend time in class reading the parts aloud. My class didn’t re...more I’ll open with a disclaimer - I’m terrible at writing about things, most of all books, but I’ve promised myself that I’d write more this year and I suppose it can only get better from here.

Our Town was one of those books that was part of our high school sophomore lit curriculum, which meant that on any given day there’d be 50-100 students roaming the halls, complaining about how dull and insipid it was, and bemoaning how they had to spend time in class reading the parts aloud. My class didn’t read Our Town, but I can’t say that I was drawn towards this book because of my peers’ reviews that year - very much the opposite.

Our Town has been criticized for being sentimental, dated - a nostalgic look at a simple past that never existed. And while there are merits to this argument - a glaring lack of diversity in the cast, the focus on simple town life that is rarely simple, the lack of real dramatic conflict - it ultimately fails to stand. For one, those who condemn it for its idealizations neglect its ironic depiction of the drunkard choirmaster Simon Stinson, or the pervading unfairness of the deaths of several characters mentioned throughout the play. For another, I think such a critique misses the point that Thornton Wilder has tried to convey in Our Town. As the Stage Manger says in Act I:

So - people a thousand years from now - this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.

Our Town is not about a particular person’s life, or the Grover’s Corners life, or even the American life. It is about life itself, the act of living. Even Act III, in which a major character dies, is centered not around the tragedy of her death as much as her reflections on the universal experience of being alive.

My senior year of high school, the teacher who had assigned Our Town passed away after a prolonged struggle with lung cancer. Students attended her funeral; in memoriams were composed. And many a note mentioned, once again, Our Town - her favorite play. One passage was in particular oft-quoted:

It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another. I didn’t realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed… Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?

(less)

like · see review

Oct 29, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to John by: James Garvey

Our Town is a three act play set in the insular (fictional) town of Grover's Corner, New Hampshire at the beginning of the 20th century. It centers on the lives of two teenagers, George and Emily, forced to become adults by their families, the Gibbs and the Webbs respectively, and their provincial town.
Won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The play directs the players to perform without a set and almost no props. Our vision of the town and its characters is outlined by the omniscient "Stage Ma...more

like · see review

Aug 28, 2012 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I haven't read that many plays and didn't really expect to like this, but I did. The sparse stage directions and scenery were well done I think and really made the poignancy of the narration and dialogue. I wasn't sure at first that I would be able to relate due to the time period, but turns out small towns trump that aspect.

Some bits:

"Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to."

"Y'know-Babylon once...more I haven't read that many plays and didn't really expect to like this, but I did. The sparse stage directions and scenery were well done I think and really made the poignancy of the narration and dialogue. I wasn't sure at first that I would be able to relate due to the time period, but turns out small towns trump that aspect.

Some bits:

"Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to."

"Y'know-Babylon once had two million people in it, and all we know about 'em is the names of the kings and some copies of wheat contracts...and contracts for the sale of slaves. Yet every night all those families sat down to supper, and the father came home from his work, and the smoke went up the chimney,-same as here. ..[talks of putting copy of play in time capsule]...So-people a thousand years from now-this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century.-This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying."

"He wrote Jane a letter and on the envelope the address was like this: It said: Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover's Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America.

What's funny about that?

But listen, it's not finished: the United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God-that's what it said on the envelope."

"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars...everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."

re: life: "It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another...oh earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you."

(less)

like · see review

Mar 15, 2012 Luke West rated it 1 of 5 stars

This Pulitzer Prize winning book was not that entertaining to read and would not be that good to watch either, the book got better as the acts went by, and somewhere in of act three when they were talking about taking life for granted I was actually somehwhat enjoying it. The first act as by far the worse act it was simply about people living their everyday lives the most exciting bit in act one was either when Mrs Gibbs got offered $350 (which was actually lots when your back then) or that the...more

like · see review

Jan 17, 2012 Adam K. rated it 5 of 5 stars

I must admit that I kind of checked in and out for the first half of this play, from the beginning through about midway through the second act. I had begun with the prejudice that this play was corny, a little too folksy to be taken seriously. This myth was perpetuated by remembering how it was performed on both Growing Pains and The Wonder Years when I was a kid. It seemed that if a television series about kids had to show those kids as teens acting out a play, might as well show them pretendin...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 13, 2011 Jack Rhea rated it 5 of 5 stars

The hardest thing for someone to do is to appreciate the simplest details in life that would mean the most to you. After Thornton Wilder read Stein's novel The Making of Americans, he decided to write his award winning play Our Town. Our Town traces the childhood, marriage, and death of Emily Webb and George Gibbs and their families. Mr. Wilder uses the Stage Manager shares the examples of the universal meanings behind the ordinary lives that these people live in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire...more
The hardest thing for someone to do is to appreciate the simplest details in life that would mean the most to you. After Thornton Wilder read Stein's novel The Making of Americans, he decided to write his award winning play Our Town. Our Town traces the childhood, marriage, and death of Emily Webb and George Gibbs and their families. Mr. Wilder uses the Stage Manager shares the examples of the universal meanings behind the ordinary lives that these people live in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire during the twentieth century.
The most powerful times in this play are in the flashbacks that take place in Mr. Morgan’s soda fountain and Emily’s twelfth birthday. Wilder uses these flashbacks to show the audience how swiftly time passes. This event happen when the Stage Manager talks about how historical documents do not reveal much information about the real lives of ordinary people who live in this town. The Stage Manager wants to put a copy of Our Town into the time capsule along with several other famous texts “so—people a thousand years from now—this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. -This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying” (Wilder 25). Our Town shows how importance simple details in your lives really should mean a lot to you.
Wilder depicts a number of different types of relationships, and though some are merely platonic, all are significant. “I think that once you’ve found a person that you’re very fond of . . . I mean a person who’s fond of you, too, and likes you enough to be interested in your character” (Wilder 56). This passage is a crucial moment in this piece of literature because it shows when George really showed his affection and love to Ms. Emily Webb. George is really fond of Emily and Emily is very interested in George’s character.
George and Emily simply exhibit the desire for love that all human beings share. George represents the true American boy in this play who ultimately persuades himself to not go to agriculture school. Instead, he wants to stay in Grover’s Corners to be with Emily for the rest of his life. George realized that he should spend more time on and focus more on what is truly important to him. To George, college may not be a natural or inevitable stage of human development. That is Emily and he wants to live a happy life with her and spend the rest of their time near Grover’s Corners.
Thornton Wilder's award winning play Our Town is an attempt to find a value for the smallest events in our daily lives. This play teaches you to live in the moment. Live for what is there right now, do not focus on the future or the past because you can never get the past back. Thornton Wilder makes the after life seem so miserable the reader because if you did not live a happy life, then why did u live because you can never get that past back. Our Town is truly a hauntingly beautiful play-taking place in the twentieth century.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Ashley Stallings added it

We had to read this for school, it was ok. Not my favorite but it wasn't entirely awful. I probably would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't had to answer questions after each act. The book is a play split into three acts. The First act if called "Daily Life" where they provide most of the exposition and introduce you to the town, Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, and the two main families, the Gibbses and the Webbs. The second act is called "Love and Marriage" in this act two of the main character...more

like · see review

Aug 09, 2010 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been reading Thornton Wilder lately, and I noted at one point that he said about this play, "Lord! What I got myself in for. A theologico-metaphisico transcription for the Purgatorio with panels of American rural genre-stuff." My high school did the play many years ago, and I remember on the one hand being near tears at the end, and on the other being oh-so-superior to its sentimentality. I haven't seen it since, and I'm a great admirer of Dante, so I thought I'd better give it a try. It's...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 18, 2009 Janine Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars

It is perhaps down to the fact that I was forced to study this play, along with my rather bored and disgruntled GCSE English class, as a 15 year old that I have a dislike for it. I found it quite dry and particularly unexciting as a piece of literature and having to make dozens of seemingly "pointless" characters notes time and time again did not help this.

However I can appreciate the beauty the of the play and it's story. It is simple, both to read and follow structurally; divided into 3 acts e...more

like · see review

May 14, 2009 Erik Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I saw an amazing production of this last night in the Village, and I would like to use this review to generate dialogue about this play for anyone who is interested. First, the production: black box theater, intimate, bare staging, bare set, except for the final scene of Emily's twelve-year-old birthday party. The role of Stage Manager was played as effectively as I've ever seen it played. The guy nailed it, just nailed it. In fact, the scenes that moved me most were not the love scene in the ma...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sparrow I agree, Erik. I love this play. I'm not sure I would go so far as to say there isn't any whiff of sentimentality. I smell something at a couple of po...more
May 14, 2009 03:42pm

Erik Simon And that story of the cat, Meredith, makes me a fan of you. Yes, maybe there is some sentimentality, but Wilder always seems to preempt it. For instan...more
May 14, 2009 04:18pm

May 04, 2009 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

When Pres. Monson mentioned this book again in Jeffrey's graduation ceremony, I decided I finally needed to read it. It is an interesting play. I do sometimes forget that I will not always have my kids (although the way Jeffrey has been acting that's a good thing!). I also don't always appreciate the little daily tasks of life which carry a meaning beyond the moment. I liked the idea in Act 3 that "We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth,...more

like · see review

May 10, 2010 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've always heard of this play, though I knew nothing about it, and thought that now would be the perfect time to check it out, seeing how there are 3 weeks left in the school year and I'm looking for something short, easy, and fun (they like to read the parts in a play) to end the school year with before finals. It's definitely short – I read Act I Saturday at home and Acts II and III in a single sitting tonight – and, like a good play should have, every line of dialogue is dripping with meanin...more I've always heard of this play, though I knew nothing about it, and thought that now would be the perfect time to check it out, seeing how there are 3 weeks left in the school year and I'm looking for something short, easy, and fun (they like to read the parts in a play) to end the school year with before finals. It's definitely short – I read Act I Saturday at home and Acts II and III in a single sitting tonight – and, like a good play should have, every line of dialogue is dripping with meaning. What that meaning is, exactly, remains to be debated.

The themes are at the forefront from the get-go, but they develop in a very abstract manner. Even in Act III, when the actors deliver their most straight-forward lines, the reader isn’t exactly sure what they’re talking about. Not that the dialogue is hard to follow, but each line is full of vagaries, shooting for such a universalism that it almost seems to lose a bit of specificity. Our main character declares, “They don’t get it, do they?” Maybe that’s the point. We don’t really get it. But searching for “it” is the point.

It’s funny to hear that this play is “dated” when it seems like the stage directions, the bare set-up and pantomiming actors, and the “stage director” – who meshes seamlessly between actor and narrator – are straight out of the post-modern playwright’s handbook. Imagine seeing this in the 30’s! Groundbreaking. It is a bit weird to read, even to this day. The Stage Director directly addresses the audience and introduces the actors and actresses; the dead speak; the chronology shifts within the page. I would have loved to see this when it debuted with the audience members who had their minds blown. And even reading this doesn’t really do it justice – I’d love to see it performed today.

I really like the attempt at universality, even when it gets a little buddy. I like the whole “our town is like this” way of speaking that the Stage Director takes, and I like the focus on select scenes of importance in the human life – birth, death, adolescent interests, marriage, the average morning. I like the culminating Act where the human condition is fully confronted, even if we can’t decide exactly what transpires from that confrontation. Maybe this is where the “universality” becomes “specific to the reader” as he or she views this confrontation.

I hope my students like it. I really like it. Anything that makes one contemplate “being alive” – that’s art, and because this went about such in a new, unique way – even 80 years later – I’m impressed.
(less)

like · see review

Jan 20, 2013 Christie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourite-books

I have loved Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Our Town, since I was fourteen or fifteen. I was trying to figure out how I would have come into contact with it, as I certainly didn’t read it while in school. My best guess is that it was because of Robby Benson, who starred in an adaptation of the play which must have aired on television. If you are a regular visitor to this blog, then you know that Robby and I go way (way) back.

I probably purchased my copy of the play around then –...more

like · see review

Jul 29, 2010 Ralph rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." ~Will Rogers

I have never read or seen this play so I didn't have any expectations going into it. I am on the fence. There is so little that happens that you really don't care about the characters; however, Wilder does such a good job of expressing emotion and getting you to think with so few words, that's it hard not to like. It's amazing how different this play is when compared to his novel, The Bridge of San Lu...more

like · see review

May 06, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-lit

I enjoyed the play and thought it was thought provoking. I particularly like the elements of this play that speak to feminism. I also think mortality, obviously a timeless theme, is dealt with in an interesting way in Thornton Wilder's play.
The characters are rather appealing and deeply sentimental. The plot centers around the lives of the characters in a small town in New Hampshire, a fictional place. The time is the turn of the century. Thee play centers around the lives of two families who l...more

like · see review

Mar 25, 2012 Tanya Lolonis rated it 5 of 5 stars

We had to read this in high school (sophomore year, I believe), and I was so moved by "Our Town" that I scoured our school library for anything else he'd written. And I read it all, and thoroughly enjoyed. This remains my favorite, and his best, stripping away distractions to explore universal truths in small acts, simple words -- life, death, love. Very basic, very, very good. Even now, some (ahem) years later, I can still feel its emotional purity and force. I remember also learning about his...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 25, 2013 Kenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Wilder wrote this play, he had very minimal props and curtains in it, in order to remind the audience that the play was not reality. So instead of having physical visuals, he had a Stage Manager explain the invisible scenery to everyone. The beginning of this play, as well as a few paragraphs here and there, are solely monologue of the Stage Manager explaining what the town looks like (i. e. "The Presbyterian church is to the left, the Catholic Church is opposite it... Main Street runs righ...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 03, 2008 Carin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I don't usually read plays, this deserves each of its five stars. I love the simplicity with which is is written--and to see it performed truly brings the message home. No frills. No fluff. This is life, both the bitter and the sweet and it's wonderful. You'll appreciate each little blessing in your every day more having read Our Town. (a Grandpa Wells favorite)

1 like · like · see review

May 06, 2013 Eleni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: faculty-of-english, theatre-plays

"The soul, my dear, is eternal. Not the houses, not the names, not the money. The soul."

This play is simple to its core; plain plot, zero settings, ordinary life characters. It takes you to a town, that could be anytime, anywhere and tells you a story that has been told for thousand of years and probably will be for many more, the story of people. Everyday, real-life people, like me and you, like them one century ago.

It starts out rather dull and pointless but in the process it unwraps all tha...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Our Town analysis, themes, trivia, audio, video	2	26	Mar 21, 2013 01:35pm
Hollinger: 1 Spri...: Question Set #2	6	17	Jan 26, 2012 02:30pm

combine
Other Editions (34)

More editions...

Genres

Plays

745 users

Classics

449 users

Drama

280 users

Academic > School

71 users

Plays > Theatre

56 users

Literature

48 users

Young Adult > High School

41 users

Academic > Read For School

36 users

Literature > American

22 users

Historical Fiction

19 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Thornton Wilder

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton...

More about Thornton Wilder...

Books by Thornton Wilder

Three Plays: Our Town/The Skin of Our Teeth/The Matchmaker

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Our Town: A Play ...

13 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Our Town

“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.

-stage manager, in the play OUR TOWN” — 64 people liked it

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?” — 49 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Our Town
avg rating	preview: Our Town Goodreads rating: 3.53 (17983 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205476.Our_Town?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348096568l/205476.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205476.Our_Town?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Our Town by Thornton Wilder[/url]

Our Town

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website