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An Inspector Calls and Other Plays
An Inspector Calls, first produced in 1946 when society was undergoing sweeping transformations, has recently enjoyed an enormously successful revival. While holding its audience with the gripping tension of a detective thriller, it is also a philosophical play about social conscience and the crumbling of middle class values. Time and the Conways and I Have Been Here Before belong to Priestley's 'time'plays, in which he explores the idea of precognition and pits fate against free will. The Linden Tree also challenges preconceived ideas of history when Professor Linden comes into conflict with his family about how life should be lived after the war.
374 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1947
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About the author
J.B. Priestley
470 books288 followersJohn Boynton Priestley was an English writer. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France - in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months; then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
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October 23, 2020
it's just 1912 eastenders innit
April 4, 2017
Time is an entity writers, thinkers and scientists have struggled with ever since... well, the beginning of time! (Sorry for the bad pun.) Well, not exactly, but the nature of time has been an indispensable part of creative literature ever since stories began to be told. In Indian mythology, time is cyclic, with past, present and future recurring ad infinitum whereas in the Occident "time's arrow" - its apparently unidimensional movement in the forward direction - is an absolute concept with an "end of days" fast approaching. As science progressed, time's apparent rigidity was first destroyed by Einstein by the theory of relativity: with the arrival of quantum theory, it became a very fluid concept. (According to Stephen Hawking, time is spherical, but wrap my head around that concept I need to go back and read his book once again.)
In the present collection of four plays by J. B. Priestly, time takes centre stage in three: in three different ways. The title play, Time and the Conways, uses the possibilities of the stage to mishmash time: in the second one (I Have Been Here Before), the possibilities of static or cyclic time are explored in a narrative which borders on fantasy. In the last play, The Linden Tree, the effect of the passage of time on human beings and families is explored in a conventional manner, making it the most "ordinary" of the lot. An Inspector Calls, the most powerful play among the lot (in my opinion) does not play with time but with possibilities.
Time and the Conways
The Conways are prosperous family comprising the charming but shallow Mrs. Conway, her sons happy-go-lucky son Robin and quiet and perceptive Alan; daughters Hazel (pretty and rather silly), Madge (serious and political), Kay (creative and sensitive) and Carol(an exhilarating free spirit). We meet them at Kay's twenty-first birthday party as the family are playing a game of dumb charades. It is 1919 and the first world-war is ending: Robin, who has been away in the army is due to arrive. There is also Joan Helford who is in love with Robin, Gerald Thornton who is a young man who is a friend of the the family and Ernest Beevers, Gerald's friend, who is enamoured of Hazel who can't stand his sight.
This could be any drawing room comedy of the fifties: pleasant and mediocre. But Priestly expertly wrong-foots us by breaking the scene in-between and taking nineteen years forward in time in the second act. It's once again Kay's birthday party, this time the fortieth, but the occasion is far from pleasant: the Conways have lost their wealth, relationships have formed and broken down, and most of the family (except Alan) have become disillusioned and embittered. The euphoria of the roaring twenties have given way to the despondency of the forties, and a second war is looming on the horizon.
This itself would have provided a stunningly good play: but the playwright tricks us yet again! In the third act, we go back to where we have left off in the first act - but now, each and every line becomes loaded as we see the shambles of the second act being foreshadowed: and we realise how little events leave long shadows on the path of time. But according to Alan, the trouble is due to how we view ourselves.
I Have Been Here Before
Literally, this is the feeling of deja vu: where you know that you have never been in a place or situation before, but still it all seems all too familiar. Reincarnation and cyclic time all have been used as explanations for this phenomenon which modern science sees as an anomaly of memory. In the hands of a gifted writer, it makes for the premise of an intriguing play.
The concept of seemingly insignificant events of the present which can have lasting impact on one's life examined in the previous play is used here too, but with the question asked: if we knew what could happen, can we change it? Or in another sense, can we go back and change the past?
Doctor Gortler, a displaced German scientist, arrives at the Double Bull Inn run by Sam Shipley and his widowed daughter Sally Pratt in Grindle Moor, North Yorkshire. Apparently, he seems to know that the industrialist Ormund and his wife Janet are due to arrive there - and also about the drama to be played out between them and Oliver Farrant, a schoolmaster teaching at one of the Ormund schools. As the events play out in their inevitability, Dr. Gottler acts as a sort of deus ex machina to resolve them.
If one leaves aside the fantasy/ science fiction premise, this play is rather insipid to read. But one can easily appreciate the power it would have had on stage when it was staged in 1937.
An Inspector Calls
Undoubtedly the best among the lot. See my review here.
The Linden Tree
This is the most straightforward play among the lot, describing a situation similar to the one in Time and the Conways, but with a much nicer family, and relatively a more pleasant resolution.
Professor Robert Linden is a history professor at the university in the provincial town of Burmanley. The new vice-chancellor wants to retire him - the play opens on the day of his sixty-fifth birthday, the official retirement age - and the professor's wife also agrees: she wants out! Linden's wheeler-dealer son Rex has managed to buy a county estate, and she wants to move there to spend their declining years in peace. His daughters, the serious Dr. Jean and the social climber Marion (married to a French aristocrat), agree - only his youngest daughter, Dinah, is with the Professor who plans to fight tooth and nail to stick on.
Dr. Jean here is a rehash of Madge in the first play, and Dinah is Carol. Marion is a more aggressive Hazel and we can find shades of Robin in Rex. For this reason, reading the plays in succession, it felt repetitive to me - maybe it's different on stage, however.
Again, time makes its entrance here in the form of history, on which Professor Linden has his own refreshingly different views.
Thankfully, we have the artists and writers to record the second pattern.
In the present collection of four plays by J. B. Priestly, time takes centre stage in three: in three different ways. The title play, Time and the Conways, uses the possibilities of the stage to mishmash time: in the second one (I Have Been Here Before), the possibilities of static or cyclic time are explored in a narrative which borders on fantasy. In the last play, The Linden Tree, the effect of the passage of time on human beings and families is explored in a conventional manner, making it the most "ordinary" of the lot. An Inspector Calls, the most powerful play among the lot (in my opinion) does not play with time but with possibilities.
Time and the Conways
The Conways are prosperous family comprising the charming but shallow Mrs. Conway, her sons happy-go-lucky son Robin and quiet and perceptive Alan; daughters Hazel (pretty and rather silly), Madge (serious and political), Kay (creative and sensitive) and Carol(an exhilarating free spirit). We meet them at Kay's twenty-first birthday party as the family are playing a game of dumb charades. It is 1919 and the first world-war is ending: Robin, who has been away in the army is due to arrive. There is also Joan Helford who is in love with Robin, Gerald Thornton who is a young man who is a friend of the the family and Ernest Beevers, Gerald's friend, who is enamoured of Hazel who can't stand his sight.
This could be any drawing room comedy of the fifties: pleasant and mediocre. But Priestly expertly wrong-foots us by breaking the scene in-between and taking nineteen years forward in time in the second act. It's once again Kay's birthday party, this time the fortieth, but the occasion is far from pleasant: the Conways have lost their wealth, relationships have formed and broken down, and most of the family (except Alan) have become disillusioned and embittered. The euphoria of the roaring twenties have given way to the despondency of the forties, and a second war is looming on the horizon.
This itself would have provided a stunningly good play: but the playwright tricks us yet again! In the third act, we go back to where we have left off in the first act - but now, each and every line becomes loaded as we see the shambles of the second act being foreshadowed: and we realise how little events leave long shadows on the path of time. But according to Alan, the trouble is due to how we view ourselves.
Alan: ...You know, I believe half our trouble now is because we think that Time's ticking our lives away. That's why we snatch and grab and hurt each other.
Kay: As if we were all in a panic on a sinking ship.
Alan: Yes, like that.
Kay: [smiling at him] But you don't do these things - bless you!
Alan: I think it's easier not to - if you take a long view.
Kay: As if we're - immortal beings?
Alan: Yes, and in for a tremendous adventure.
I Have Been Here Before
Literally, this is the feeling of deja vu: where you know that you have never been in a place or situation before, but still it all seems all too familiar. Reincarnation and cyclic time all have been used as explanations for this phenomenon which modern science sees as an anomaly of memory. In the hands of a gifted writer, it makes for the premise of an intriguing play.
The concept of seemingly insignificant events of the present which can have lasting impact on one's life examined in the previous play is used here too, but with the question asked: if we knew what could happen, can we change it? Or in another sense, can we go back and change the past?
Doctor Gortler, a displaced German scientist, arrives at the Double Bull Inn run by Sam Shipley and his widowed daughter Sally Pratt in Grindle Moor, North Yorkshire. Apparently, he seems to know that the industrialist Ormund and his wife Janet are due to arrive there - and also about the drama to be played out between them and Oliver Farrant, a schoolmaster teaching at one of the Ormund schools. As the events play out in their inevitability, Dr. Gottler acts as a sort of deus ex machina to resolve them.
If one leaves aside the fantasy/ science fiction premise, this play is rather insipid to read. But one can easily appreciate the power it would have had on stage when it was staged in 1937.
Dr. Gortler: You say that you have been happy here?
Sam: Yes, I can't grumble at all. I have never made much out o' this place, but I've had all I want. I'd ask for naught better - If I had my time over again.
Dr. Gortler: [interested] Do you often say that?
Sam: Say what?
Dr. Gortler: [slowly] If you had your time over again.
An Inspector Calls
Undoubtedly the best among the lot. See my review here.
The Linden Tree
This is the most straightforward play among the lot, describing a situation similar to the one in Time and the Conways, but with a much nicer family, and relatively a more pleasant resolution.
Professor Robert Linden is a history professor at the university in the provincial town of Burmanley. The new vice-chancellor wants to retire him - the play opens on the day of his sixty-fifth birthday, the official retirement age - and the professor's wife also agrees: she wants out! Linden's wheeler-dealer son Rex has managed to buy a county estate, and she wants to move there to spend their declining years in peace. His daughters, the serious Dr. Jean and the social climber Marion (married to a French aristocrat), agree - only his youngest daughter, Dinah, is with the Professor who plans to fight tooth and nail to stick on.
Dr. Jean here is a rehash of Madge in the first play, and Dinah is Carol. Marion is a more aggressive Hazel and we can find shades of Robin in Rex. For this reason, reading the plays in succession, it felt repetitive to me - maybe it's different on stage, however.
Again, time makes its entrance here in the form of history, on which Professor Linden has his own refreshingly different views.
'History, to be worthy of the name, should bring us a stereoscopic view of man's life. Without that extra dimension, strangely poignant as well as vivid, it is flat and because it is flat, it is false. There are two patterns, endlessly being superimposed on one another. The first pattern is that of man reproducing himself, finding food and shelter, tilling the land, building cities, crossing the seas. It is the picture we understand now with ease, perhaps too easily. For the other pattern is still there, waiting to be interpreted. It is the record of man as a spiritual creature, with a whole world of unknown continents and strange seas, gardens of Paradise and cities lit with hell-fire, within the depths of his own soul. History that ignores the god and the altar is as false as history that could forget the sword and the wheel...'
Thankfully, we have the artists and writers to record the second pattern.
July 29, 2018
I loved An Inspector Calls, especially the line "if man will not learn his lesson he will be taught in fire blood and anguish". The whole play has such a powerful message.
July 29, 2024
eat the rich🥰
January 7, 2022
Studies at school. Loved the mystery and the themes. Still has me wondering ...
5/5
5/5
June 22, 2022
im behind on my goodreads goal, so idc that i only read this cause of gcses
April 9, 2019
There are four plays in this book and the first three of them are superb. The fourth is good but to be honest I also found it a bit boring. Why? For the simple reason that the first three have metaphysical, supernatural, moral, social and paradoxical elements. The fourth only has the moral and social input. But let's not be too harsh on 'The Linden Tree'. Certainly the characters in the play are very engaging and the ending is excellent, namely the hint of the resurgence of the spirit of a great professor who has almost, but not quite, been crushed by circumstances outside his control.
As for the first three plays... 'Time and the Conways' has a structural layout that really amplifies its poignancy in a manner that is remarkable. It's a masterpiece. 'I Have Been Here Before' seamlessly incorporates a playfully serious hypothesis about the nature of Time into the action. It is about Eternal Recurrence and how to break out of the (illusory) closed cycle of endless repetition of a life. It is about the multiverse, before 'multiverse' was a common word. I was hugely impressed by both these plays. They are unusual, acute and highly original.
'An Inspector Calls' is a work of genius. No wonder it is Priestley's most famous play. Despite its strong didactic flavour (the character of the inspector acts almost like a lecturer in an ethics class) the magnificent driving idea behind the work -- that we are all connected in such a way that none of us can evade our responsibility for the real suffering caused by interfering selfishly with the chains of causation -- is allowed to dominate and power the evolution of the play in a sublime and devastating manner. The pacing is perfect. As a bonus, the ending is one of the best endings I have ever read in any play.
As for the first three plays... 'Time and the Conways' has a structural layout that really amplifies its poignancy in a manner that is remarkable. It's a masterpiece. 'I Have Been Here Before' seamlessly incorporates a playfully serious hypothesis about the nature of Time into the action. It is about Eternal Recurrence and how to break out of the (illusory) closed cycle of endless repetition of a life. It is about the multiverse, before 'multiverse' was a common word. I was hugely impressed by both these plays. They are unusual, acute and highly original.
'An Inspector Calls' is a work of genius. No wonder it is Priestley's most famous play. Despite its strong didactic flavour (the character of the inspector acts almost like a lecturer in an ethics class) the magnificent driving idea behind the work -- that we are all connected in such a way that none of us can evade our responsibility for the real suffering caused by interfering selfishly with the chains of causation -- is allowed to dominate and power the evolution of the play in a sublime and devastating manner. The pacing is perfect. As a bonus, the ending is one of the best endings I have ever read in any play.
June 15, 2019
'I found a 1978 Penguin edition.
Four plays:
Time and the Conways
I Have Been Here Before
An Inspector Calls
The Linden Tree
Back cover synopsis
'Time and the Conways', a brilliantly successful experiment, shows us the same family in 1919 and 1937; the third and final act returns to the happy family party of 1919 to shed a bitter, ironical light on the youthful hopes of the characters.
'I Have Been Here Before', another 'time' play, is based on a theory of Time and Human Life as a recurring cycle. During a weekend in the Yorkshire dales, Dr Görtler, a mysterious refugee, tries to save a rich couple and a young schoolmaster from a tragic course of action.
'The Linden Tree', a Chekhov-like study of family relationships, finds the Lindens divided : Professor Linden at sixty-five could retire but is dedicated to teaching at a run-down provincial university. But his wife and rich son Rex have other ideas. . .
'An Inspector Calls', written inside a week in 1944, has become world-wide one of the most performed of all modern plays. Inspector Goole, investigating a girl's death, calls on the Birlings. Tension builds as he dissects the hidden vices and confusions behind the façade of this outwardly virtuous Edwardian household.
Four plays:
Time and the Conways
I Have Been Here Before
An Inspector Calls
The Linden Tree
Back cover synopsis
'Time and the Conways', a brilliantly successful experiment, shows us the same family in 1919 and 1937; the third and final act returns to the happy family party of 1919 to shed a bitter, ironical light on the youthful hopes of the characters.
'I Have Been Here Before', another 'time' play, is based on a theory of Time and Human Life as a recurring cycle. During a weekend in the Yorkshire dales, Dr Görtler, a mysterious refugee, tries to save a rich couple and a young schoolmaster from a tragic course of action.
'The Linden Tree', a Chekhov-like study of family relationships, finds the Lindens divided : Professor Linden at sixty-five could retire but is dedicated to teaching at a run-down provincial university. But his wife and rich son Rex have other ideas. . .
'An Inspector Calls', written inside a week in 1944, has become world-wide one of the most performed of all modern plays. Inspector Goole, investigating a girl's death, calls on the Birlings. Tension builds as he dissects the hidden vices and confusions behind the façade of this outwardly virtuous Edwardian household.
December 5, 2015
An Inspector Calls is great! As an IGCSE English teacher the text has excellent bits for analysis while maintaining a story that is accessible and interesting for G9 and G10 students. The students absolutely loved the play and many listed it as a favorite part of the course. At the ending the students were shouting out loud (I'm not joking) at the plot twists.
Highly recommended as a text for study.
The other plays didn't move me as much and are the reason for the four star review. When ordering this book for next year I will just order An Inspector Calls as a stand alone play.
Highly recommended as a text for study.
The other plays didn't move me as much and are the reason for the four star review. When ordering this book for next year I will just order An Inspector Calls as a stand alone play.
September 12, 2025
Four intriguing and enjoyable plays, all about the possibilities and impossibilities of time and its effect on human lives.
‘An inspector calls’ is the one I enjoyed most, even though I have seen the film in the past. It keeps surprising you each time you think you know what’s going on, till the last sentence. Probably the most fascinating play ever. Agatha Christie style, but believe it or not: even better than Agatha Christie! This is the one play that should always be on stage, even longer than ‘The Mousetrap’. Wow! I love it!
‘An inspector calls’ is the one I enjoyed most, even though I have seen the film in the past. It keeps surprising you each time you think you know what’s going on, till the last sentence. Probably the most fascinating play ever. Agatha Christie style, but believe it or not: even better than Agatha Christie! This is the one play that should always be on stage, even longer than ‘The Mousetrap’. Wow! I love it!
June 29, 2018
"We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you the time will soon come when, if men do not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish".
March 20, 2021
I don’t really know how I evaded reading this throughout my whole school career but I’m glad I’ve finally had to read it.
I hate that they called him goole, whole star docked for that, rest of it was calm
I hate that they called him goole, whole star docked for that, rest of it was calm
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2023
We like to drink with Eva cause Eva is our mate
March 30, 2023
Priestley here encapsulates many of the things I love about twentieth-century writing: chiefly among them the true realisation and reckoning with the passage of time in a turbulent century. And not without his trademark message of social responsibility. What I really enjoy about Priestley’s work is that the family unit, and what it means when a family grows up, is really explored here. There’s also a claustrophobia to his sets, increasingly so as the acts of his plays develop. Really fell in love with reading plays again from reading this. Here are my individual reviews for each:
Time and the Conways - Early twentieth-century England’s answer to Little Women. Melancholic and moody. You can see where a lot of the plot points are going to go in the third act but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to see play out.
I Have Been Here Before - Probably my least favourite in the collection, but was very interesting to have contemporary physical theory on time and recurrence incorporated. It’s (unsurprisingly) a bit out of left field, but still much to be taken away from it.
An Inspector Calls - The OG. The GOAT. Still the most arresting and moving of Priestley’s work. No notes. Chills every time.
The Linden Tree - Arguably the ‘lightest’, but certainly most anxious of the collection. Priestley’s exploration into education and the post-WWII mentality are both very fitting here. His deconstruction of the morals of every middle-class walk of life are very welcome.
Time and the Conways - Early twentieth-century England’s answer to Little Women. Melancholic and moody. You can see where a lot of the plot points are going to go in the third act but it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to see play out.
I Have Been Here Before - Probably my least favourite in the collection, but was very interesting to have contemporary physical theory on time and recurrence incorporated. It’s (unsurprisingly) a bit out of left field, but still much to be taken away from it.
An Inspector Calls - The OG. The GOAT. Still the most arresting and moving of Priestley’s work. No notes. Chills every time.
The Linden Tree - Arguably the ‘lightest’, but certainly most anxious of the collection. Priestley’s exploration into education and the post-WWII mentality are both very fitting here. His deconstruction of the morals of every middle-class walk of life are very welcome.
December 11, 2024
that was mad crazy fam. i aint read nothin like this gang. fr recommend this !!
in all seriousness this books was SO GOOD. it perfectly explored the capitalist and socialist views of the time and captured how the Birlings actions were all to blame in different ways. Priestley’s message on the need for society to change was also very well executed. the ending was amazing too and had me so surprised
in all seriousness this books was SO GOOD. it perfectly explored the capitalist and socialist views of the time and captured how the Birlings actions were all to blame in different ways. Priestley’s message on the need for society to change was also very well executed. the ending was amazing too and had me so surprised
December 27, 2023
Time and the Conways: 2.5
I have been here before: 4
An Inspector calls: 4.25
The Linden Tree: 3.25
I have been here before: 4
An Inspector calls: 4.25
The Linden Tree: 3.25
June 11, 2017
I recently re-read this again, as I studied it many, many years ago for GCSE English. The BBC adapted it recently, and I thought it was a fantastic version of the play. One of my favourites. Priestley manages to capture the moral complexity of our everyday lives and just goes to show how our behaviour could affect others.
March 28, 2024
Set in 1912 in Brumley. The Birling family are having dinner, celebrating the engagement of their daughter, Sheila to Gerald Croft when their maid Edna, announces that an Inspector Goole has arrived to speak to Arthur. Arthur does not know the Inspector even though he works in local government and knows most of the local police. He asks a few questions and seems satisfied.
Inspector Goole informs the family that a young girl, Eva Smith has been found dead from suicide. The Inspector shows Arthur her picture, whom he admits to employing at his factory, and firing her when she incites a strike for higher wages. The action is denied by Arthur even though the amount requested is small.
The Inspector then tells the family that after Eva Smith was fired from the factory, she got a job at Milward's. He turns to Sheila who is told that Eva Smith was the girl she complained about and who got sacked. Sheila is racked with guilt and very upset.
The Inspector turns to Gerald and shows him a picture whom Gerald recognises as a girl called Daisy Renton. Sheila accuses Gerald of having an affair which he admits. Gerald leaves the house and goes for a walk. At seems as if the engagement is off at this point.
Next is Sybil's turn. Sybil volunteers for a charity which helps people in need. She turned down Daisy Renton's request for help when she was pregnant, because she said that Daisy should ask the father for money. In this moment, Sybil realises that her own son, Eric is the child's father, and she refused help for her own grandchild. Eric also then admits an affair with the girl, but has little recollection of what happened due to being drunk.
The Inspector finishes up by saying that all the family have played a part in the girl's death and should consider themselves guilty. He says that they should have looked out for her, and that society is "one body".
When Gerald returns to the house from his walk, he says he met a sergeant who had not heard of Goole. Arthur is relieved that the family have been hoaxed as it means that there will not be a public scandal. Gerald also works out that no one was shown the picture at the same time and they could have been shown different girls. Arthur also confirms that there have been no deaths of a young girl recorded at the hospital.
The family are feeling upset/relieved/angry when the phone rings - it is the police who will shortly be calling on the family to discuss the suicide of a young girl.
Inspector Goole informs the family that a young girl, Eva Smith has been found dead from suicide. The Inspector shows Arthur her picture, whom he admits to employing at his factory, and firing her when she incites a strike for higher wages. The action is denied by Arthur even though the amount requested is small.
The Inspector then tells the family that after Eva Smith was fired from the factory, she got a job at Milward's. He turns to Sheila who is told that Eva Smith was the girl she complained about and who got sacked. Sheila is racked with guilt and very upset.
The Inspector turns to Gerald and shows him a picture whom Gerald recognises as a girl called Daisy Renton. Sheila accuses Gerald of having an affair which he admits. Gerald leaves the house and goes for a walk. At seems as if the engagement is off at this point.
Next is Sybil's turn. Sybil volunteers for a charity which helps people in need. She turned down Daisy Renton's request for help when she was pregnant, because she said that Daisy should ask the father for money. In this moment, Sybil realises that her own son, Eric is the child's father, and she refused help for her own grandchild. Eric also then admits an affair with the girl, but has little recollection of what happened due to being drunk.
The Inspector finishes up by saying that all the family have played a part in the girl's death and should consider themselves guilty. He says that they should have looked out for her, and that society is "one body".
When Gerald returns to the house from his walk, he says he met a sergeant who had not heard of Goole. Arthur is relieved that the family have been hoaxed as it means that there will not be a public scandal. Gerald also works out that no one was shown the picture at the same time and they could have been shown different girls. Arthur also confirms that there have been no deaths of a young girl recorded at the hospital.
The family are feeling upset/relieved/angry when the phone rings - it is the police who will shortly be calling on the family to discuss the suicide of a young girl.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2023
Really enjoyed these time plays - there were lines dotted throughout all 4 plays that really makes the reader reflect and think about the bigger questions in life! Not my usual type of plays to read but really enjoyed them!
July 30, 2023
a reread of ‘an inspector calls’ for the first time since school and an introduction to 3 of his other plays which i also loved, definitely a playwright everyone should check out!
August 4, 2024
Back in my GCSE English era. I actually did Blood Brothers instead of Inspector Calls, and it defo hits better because of the songs, but loved how J.B. Priestley ends every act with a good mic drop moment.
December 11, 2024
Best play I’ve ever read hands down and such a powerful story about the social hierarchy and how their actions have an effect on others as we are “like bees in a hive, all mixed together” wether Mr Birling likes it or not. Omg and that ending CHILLS LIKE WOAH. I NEED to see this in the theatre!!
March 23, 2023
An Inspector Calls is still one of my favourite plays of all time!!
May 3, 2016
You want proof that guessing what the author meant when they made something or someone up doesn't work? Here you go. This is the first time I've ever read An Inspector Calls. Inspector Priestley was totally not (or at least not to my knowledge) named after JB. But I'm an idiot, because he should have been. This is a totally brilliant and totally horrifying play that I'd have absolutely used as book material if I'd read it before. Now's my chance, I guess! (12+)
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. Please do not use it in any marketing material, online or in print, without asking permission from me first. Thank you!*
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. Please do not use it in any marketing material, online or in print, without asking permission from me first. Thank you!*
May 28, 2022
I don't think I'll ever forget that the Titanic was "unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"
November 10, 2021
J.B.Priestley's fine plays, written & produced for the theatres of the English-speaking world, either side of the Second World War, reflected the parlous state of mind that he found in many of his family, friends & professional acquaintances, partly the effect of the horrific Great War with its disturbing, emotional & social aftermath. The domestic settings of many of his best plays are banal & middle-class, but Priestley had a wonderful talent for angry dialogues that delved deeply into smug assumptions about the class-conscious world of England in those years of economic purgatory & political confusion.
These four plays all have a dramatic undercurrent of mild panic & hysteria, the most celebrated 'An Inspector Calls' still resonates with its sinister element of retribution & absolution of human weaknesses, be they venal, social, sexual or psychological!
Reading plays without having seen them performed live, is not always a pleasure, but Priestley manages to pull-off that trick, with some outstandingly clever exchanges between complex characters who break that fourth wall and have you wanting to join in and add your two penno'th, as he might well have said himself!
These four plays all have a dramatic undercurrent of mild panic & hysteria, the most celebrated 'An Inspector Calls' still resonates with its sinister element of retribution & absolution of human weaknesses, be they venal, social, sexual or psychological!
Reading plays without having seen them performed live, is not always a pleasure, but Priestley manages to pull-off that trick, with some outstandingly clever exchanges between complex characters who break that fourth wall and have you wanting to join in and add your two penno'th, as he might well have said himself!
March 11, 2017
These four plays, especially An Inspector Calls, make significant contributions to the 20th-century literature of time.
Time and the Conways (first performed 1937): The first act takes place on a birthday night in 1919 and introduces us to the many members of the Conway family, two of whom have just come home from the war, plus a few others. The second act jumps forward 18 years, to the same character’s birthday. In Act III we return to 1919, see the remainder of the evening, and learn everyone’s hopes. The structure is the main interest; Act III is ironic because we now know that possibilities won’t be fulfilled, hopes will be dashed. Only one character, who never sought for much and never achieves much, is reasonably content throughout. He quotes Blake—“Man was made for Joy & Woe / And when this we rightly know / Thro the World we safely go”—and the point of the play seems to be that none of us knows where we’re headed, but our attitude matters. Not as slender as it may sound; Viktor Frankl later drew a similar lesson from the death camps. Side note: In Act III, one of the characters has intimations of the future, as if she has glimpsed what’s to come. I’d think this was a new thing when Priestley wrote the play, and it’s surprising even now, when we encounter it in such places as the TV drama Game of Thrones (it provides the origin of Hodor’s nickname) or the film Arrival.
I Have Been Here Before (1937): Its idea, derived from a “free use” of P. D. Ouspensky, is that humans live a succession of lives, which are likely to be similar but not necessarily identical; that ordinarily we remain unconscious of these lives, though one can sometimes access memories of them; and that, regardless of those memories, the course of one’s life is subject to “feelings, imagination, and will”—in short, that you can change the course you’re on, or even the course someone else is on. The play is both fatalistic (we keep making the same mistakes because we don’t know enough ahead of time to avoid them) and optimistic (with effort and perhaps luck, we can know); it could’ve been popular in the 60s. The idea is slowly revealed and elaborated in great detail among six characters over the course of three days at a country inn. It becomes clear only gradually that the stakes are high, with marriage and happiness and careers and a business empire and one person’s life on the table. The play may leave you going “Hmm,” but the fantasy element may remind us that the metaphysical, what-if inclination of much recent art and entertainment isn’t as new as we might think.
An Inspector Calls (1946): The only play in this volume that may be familiar to American and British playgoers; a National Theatre production happens to be running now on the West End in London. It’s not strictly a murder mystery, yet the offstage suicide from which its plot springs might just as well have been a murder. The play isn’t merely a period piece either, though it’s set in spring 1912, shortly before the sailing of Titanic, which is mentioned as imminent, and (we know) not long before another calamity, that of the First World War. The action is straightforward. The police inspector of the title (whose name, Goole, is a homonym for “ghoul”) probes relentlessly into the seemingly innocuous affairs of a single family and proves his case. In exposing the past and revealing moral failings, he’s like the personification of Ibsen’s dramatic principles; the interconnections he uncovers are similar to what Priestley had established through other means in I Have Been Here Before.
In the inspector’s final, monitory speech, he makes explicit a broader charge: “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” The phrasing may sound old-fashioned, but the point is not; given that, in the modern period, we’re prone to expecting an apocalypse any day now, Priestley’s play, and his suggestion that if it comes the guilty party will not be them but us, is quite timely. There’s a thrilling, metaphysical secret in the play as well, in which the near future proves capable of affecting the present—a case of reverse causation. (James Gleick could’ve included this play in his recent survey of varieties of time travel.)
The Linden Tree (1947): Light on plot, rich in thematic explorations of time. Like Time and the Conways, this one begins on a birthday; Professor Linden, nominally the head of this two-generation family, teaches history; he’s turning 65 and is being pressed to retire; time (the birthday) has brought the family together from other cities in two countries, but time (its passage over years) has spread them apart; how the characters see things depends in part on their age; Elgar’s cello concerto is discussed twice, for its evocation of times past; etc. All these plays take place in the provinces, away from the big cities, and in The Linden Tree one glimpses the urbanization that would mark the second half of the 20th century: two characters have already moved to London, and by the final curtain a third has joined them. But the professor stays put, persisting in the face of opposition and privation, because there’s still work for him to do. This ending is Candide-like; Burmanley has little in common with a garden (most of the other characters find it drab, dismal, even “hateful”), but for him there’s something to be cultivated there.
Time and the Conways (first performed 1937): The first act takes place on a birthday night in 1919 and introduces us to the many members of the Conway family, two of whom have just come home from the war, plus a few others. The second act jumps forward 18 years, to the same character’s birthday. In Act III we return to 1919, see the remainder of the evening, and learn everyone’s hopes. The structure is the main interest; Act III is ironic because we now know that possibilities won’t be fulfilled, hopes will be dashed. Only one character, who never sought for much and never achieves much, is reasonably content throughout. He quotes Blake—“Man was made for Joy & Woe / And when this we rightly know / Thro the World we safely go”—and the point of the play seems to be that none of us knows where we’re headed, but our attitude matters. Not as slender as it may sound; Viktor Frankl later drew a similar lesson from the death camps. Side note: In Act III, one of the characters has intimations of the future, as if she has glimpsed what’s to come. I’d think this was a new thing when Priestley wrote the play, and it’s surprising even now, when we encounter it in such places as the TV drama Game of Thrones (it provides the origin of Hodor’s nickname) or the film Arrival.
I Have Been Here Before (1937): Its idea, derived from a “free use” of P. D. Ouspensky, is that humans live a succession of lives, which are likely to be similar but not necessarily identical; that ordinarily we remain unconscious of these lives, though one can sometimes access memories of them; and that, regardless of those memories, the course of one’s life is subject to “feelings, imagination, and will”—in short, that you can change the course you’re on, or even the course someone else is on. The play is both fatalistic (we keep making the same mistakes because we don’t know enough ahead of time to avoid them) and optimistic (with effort and perhaps luck, we can know); it could’ve been popular in the 60s. The idea is slowly revealed and elaborated in great detail among six characters over the course of three days at a country inn. It becomes clear only gradually that the stakes are high, with marriage and happiness and careers and a business empire and one person’s life on the table. The play may leave you going “Hmm,” but the fantasy element may remind us that the metaphysical, what-if inclination of much recent art and entertainment isn’t as new as we might think.
An Inspector Calls (1946): The only play in this volume that may be familiar to American and British playgoers; a National Theatre production happens to be running now on the West End in London. It’s not strictly a murder mystery, yet the offstage suicide from which its plot springs might just as well have been a murder. The play isn’t merely a period piece either, though it’s set in spring 1912, shortly before the sailing of Titanic, which is mentioned as imminent, and (we know) not long before another calamity, that of the First World War. The action is straightforward. The police inspector of the title (whose name, Goole, is a homonym for “ghoul”) probes relentlessly into the seemingly innocuous affairs of a single family and proves his case. In exposing the past and revealing moral failings, he’s like the personification of Ibsen’s dramatic principles; the interconnections he uncovers are similar to what Priestley had established through other means in I Have Been Here Before.
In the inspector’s final, monitory speech, he makes explicit a broader charge: “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.” The phrasing may sound old-fashioned, but the point is not; given that, in the modern period, we’re prone to expecting an apocalypse any day now, Priestley’s play, and his suggestion that if it comes the guilty party will not be them but us, is quite timely. There’s a thrilling, metaphysical secret in the play as well, in which the near future proves capable of affecting the present—a case of reverse causation. (James Gleick could’ve included this play in his recent survey of varieties of time travel.)
The Linden Tree (1947): Light on plot, rich in thematic explorations of time. Like Time and the Conways, this one begins on a birthday; Professor Linden, nominally the head of this two-generation family, teaches history; he’s turning 65 and is being pressed to retire; time (the birthday) has brought the family together from other cities in two countries, but time (its passage over years) has spread them apart; how the characters see things depends in part on their age; Elgar’s cello concerto is discussed twice, for its evocation of times past; etc. All these plays take place in the provinces, away from the big cities, and in The Linden Tree one glimpses the urbanization that would mark the second half of the 20th century: two characters have already moved to London, and by the final curtain a third has joined them. But the professor stays put, persisting in the face of opposition and privation, because there’s still work for him to do. This ending is Candide-like; Burmanley has little in common with a garden (most of the other characters find it drab, dismal, even “hateful”), but for him there’s something to be cultivated there.
July 30, 2018
I read this play at school. It was a part of my course and might I add, the best part.
I absolutely loved the building up of the suspense, the characters and how each of them had a story, the interconnection of the lives of all the characters, and the message behind it. Stunning work by the play write!
This modern play includes class conflict and differences, the selfishness of individuals, capitalism vs communism, and greed being the root of all problems.
Loved this! 5 stars!
Recommend to all.
(I believe that the best part and the aspect that makes me love this play so much is that despite having a moral at the end, it really is like a book with stage directions. What we think normal and everyday can have such a big impact on others).
:)
Tata
I absolutely loved the building up of the suspense, the characters and how each of them had a story, the interconnection of the lives of all the characters, and the message behind it. Stunning work by the play write!
This modern play includes class conflict and differences, the selfishness of individuals, capitalism vs communism, and greed being the root of all problems.
Loved this! 5 stars!
Recommend to all.
(I believe that the best part and the aspect that makes me love this play so much is that despite having a moral at the end, it really is like a book with stage directions. What we think normal and everyday can have such a big impact on others).
:)
Tata
May 30, 2020
I bought this collection four years ago because I was intrigued by An Inspector Calls but unfortunately, I was never really interested in the other plays, and thus it stayed on my shelves for years. After all these years I’ve decided to just read An Inspector Calls and acknowledge that I might never read the other plays but in case I change my mind I’m glad that I own this collection. An Inspector Calls is an amazing play and I’m glad I’ve finally read it.
September 28, 2021
Hard to really talk about as I was reading it while teaching it, namely An Inspector Calls but dabbling into some of his other works as well. The main story is an enjoyable one to read and teach though and I think particularly with the incredibly switched on class I had added to the enjoyment of it.
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