The Caretaker - by Harold Pinter (Paperback)

About the Book

Jacket description.back: In all of Pinter's plays, seemingly ordinary events become charged with profound, if elusive, meaning, haunting pathos, and wild comedy. In The Caretaker, a tramp finds lodging in the derelict house of two brothers; in The Dumbwaiter, a pair of gunmen wait for the kill in a decayed lodging house. Harold Pinter gradually exposes the inner strains and fear of his characters, alternating hilarity and character to create and almost unbearable edge of tension.

Book Synopsis

Two plays from the Nobel Prize-winning playwright that has been recognized as "the most fascinating, enigmatic, and accomplished dramatist in the English language." (Newsweek)In all of Pinter's plays, seemingly ordinary events become charged with profound, if elusive, meaning, haunting pathos, and wild comedy. In The Caretaker, a tramp finds lodging in the derelict house of two brothers; in The Dumbwaiter, a pair of gunmen wait for the kill in a decayed lodging house. Harold Pinter gradually exposes the inner strains and fear of his characters, alternating hilarity and character to create and almost unbearable edge of tension.

Review Quotes

"Since the remarkable success of The Caretaker in 1960, Harold Pinter has been recognized as 'the most fascinating, enigmatic, and accomplished dramatist in the English language.'" --Jack Kroll, Newsweek

"The Caretaker is . . . a powerful drama with a climax that tears at the heart . . . and proclaims its author as one of the most important playwrights of our day." --Howard Taubman, The New York Times

"There is no playwright his equal. He is the natural descendant of James Joyce, by way of Samuel Beckett. Pinter works the language as a master pianist works the keyboard. This is classical playwriting, make no mistake about it." --Martin Gottfried, New York Post

About the Author

Harold Pinter was born in the London borough of Hackney in 1930. During World War II, Pinter and his family escaped the Blitzkrieg by moving to Cornwall and Reading, which had a profound impact on him. In 1948 Pinter entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but after two years he dropped out.

The Room, Pinter's first play, was written in 1957 and was performed as a student production and the University of Bristol. Pinter's second play, and one of his best known, The Birthday Party (1957), was initially ill-received by the critics, but with The Caretaker (1960) Pinter secured his theatrical status.

Some of Pinter's most celebrated theatrical works include Landscape (1968), The Homecoming (1964), Betrayal (1978), and The Go-Between (1980). In 2005, the Swedish Academy awarded Pinter the Nobel Prize in Literature stating that "in his plays [he] uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."