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45th out of 100 books
—
37 voters
Browning Version (Acting Edition)
New edition of one of Rattigan's best-known plays to coincide with major revival starring Corin Redgrave in the role made famous by his father Michael Redgrave The Browning Version is the story of an unpopular and unloved classics master at a public school in the 1940s. Deserted by his wife and on the verge of retirement, Crocker-Harris finds a form of redemption in an une...more
Paperback, 57 pages
Published
March 1st 2000
by Samuel French Inc Plays
(first published September 8th 1948)
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This is a wonderful play by a British writer who is practically forgotten about. This is a play about regret, disappointment, redemption, and hope. It is the story of a school teacher who, late in life, is being "let go" and replaced in the school's Classics department. To the students, he is known as "the Hitler of the lower 5th"; to his wife, he is "a wimp"; and to the school administration, he is seen as replaceable. To himself, he is a disappointment and failure, and this is the story of his...more
Pretty high-brow, but if you know Aeschylus' Agamemnon backwards and forwards you will thoroughly enjoy this book. The two film versions are excellent. One stars Michael Redgravev (1951) and is black and white, the other is much more recent (1994) and boasts magnificent performances by Albert Finney and Greta Scacchi. Rattigan wrote the screenplay for the 1951 film and his classical knowledge contributes to plays on the Greek original. If you're feeling adventurous, take a stab at the modern Cly...more
Although The Browning Version is a classic on stage and film, partly because the main roles are so attractive to the best actors, it is worth reading, because you see different aspects of the play on page. For example, although Terence Rattigan’s retiring schoolmaster is almost always played on stage as an older man, perhaps in his fifties, the chronology given in the play makes him somewhere from late thirties to early forties. The idea that a relatively young man can be so downtrodden, both pr...more
Also 'veddy British' like The Winslow Boy, but I liked this play much better! It concerns the relationship between a young student and a teacher (not well-liked by the other boys), and that between the teacher and his wife (rocky, but superficially proper). Rich, subtle, moving. I read the play before seeing the film (before I even knew a film had been made), and found the film 'opened' out the action: you see the boys interacting, the faculty and boys, and the faculty among themselves. It was d...more
This play cemented Terence Rattigan’s reputation as a serious, mature playwright. It is viewed as one of his best works, and one of the best one-acts ever written. First performed at the Phoenix Theatre, London, England, on September 8, 1948, The Browning Version was coupled with another one-act by Rattigan entitled Harlequinade under the umbrella name, Playbill. This show ran for 245 performances, and Rattigan received the Ellen Terry Award for The Browning Version, his second. (The first was w...more
I prefer The Deep Blue Sea to this but it's still a great play.
Very poignant
Jul 04, 2011
Paul Servini
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
literature-english,
theatre
This has long been one of my favourites so I was delighted when the BBC revived it as part of their Rattigan season to mark the 100th anniversary of the author's birth. Wonderfully bitter-sweet as many of Rattigan's plays are.
Heart-rending stuff and brilliant
Jun 09, 2013
Jessica
marked it as to-read
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