# of Words: 276

The wide range of topics in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia has made it a popular for faculty freshman-year read-alongs, as a book which, ideally, may appeal to anyone from emo poets to science nerds. Early reviewers of Arcadia's initial run remarked that Tom Stoppard, like the Tin Man at The Wizard of Oz, had at long last discovered his heart.

After almost three decades of plays that a saw more as intellectual exercises compared to heartfelt drama (Stoppard's first success was with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play that retells Hamlet from the point of view of its two most insignificant characters), lots of commentators felt that Stoppard was eventually getting his emotional groove on. While his subsequent plays have been successful both in London and on Broadway, Arcadia and great old Rosencrantz and Guildenstern remain the plays for which Stoppard is best known.

While Arcadia can seem as a model of English-ness (which can make it a little confusing for an American audience), Tom Stoppard was actually born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), under the name Tomas Straussler. He lived in India before moving to England. While England has become his adopted home, Stoppard has also never forgotten his origins: his play Indian Ink is set, not surprisingly, in India, and his latest work, Rock 'n' Roll, moves between Cambridge and Prague. Along with the Czechs haven't forgotten him either: there's a Tom Stoppard Prize, given to writers of Czech origin. Besides his plays, Stoppard has also worked for decades on human rights problems in Eastern Europe and elsewhere...so maybe those critics shouldn't have needed Arcadia to know that he had a heart.

Related Papers

Brokeback Mountain Annie Proulx

Remember that film Brokeback Mountain from some time back? It awakened a great deal of controversy, nabbed itself an Academy Award nomination or two, also had fair stand-up comments quoting it's renowned "I really wish I knew how to quit you lineup." We bet you remember that. However, what you may not know is that because Hollywood is currently legally prohibited from generating first ideas, the film Brokeback Mountain was really based on a brief story called "Brokeback Mountain" composed by......Read More

The House Of The Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804. This birthdate and set tells us pretty much everything we need to know about Hawthorne: he is an American (born on the fourth of July!) And he's got roots in Salem (of witchcraft fame). Hawthorne became one of the earliest major writers in the United States, and he made his name at least in part by writing about the early colonial period in Massachusetts. This particular novel, The House of the Seven Gables, mixes a lot of......Read More

Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller

Ambition. It is one of those things which may be either your best friend or your worst enemy. On one hand, ambition can inspire us to get out of bed in the morning and follow our dreams. On the other hand, ambition will keep us from recognizing our own limitations, trapping us at the delusional grandeur of envisioned achievements. Death of a Salesman is a tragedy about the gaps between the Loman family's fantasies and the reality of their own lives. The play is a scathing review of the......Read More

Related Topics