《Death of a Salesman》為一部社會寫實經典名劇,描繪逐漸在現實生活中失去事業能力的推銷員威利•羅曼邁向死亡的歷程,藉小人物的悲劇,呈現資本主義下美國夢的幻滅。 作者亞瑟•米勒運用意識流的手法,讓人物不斷在現實的情境、虛幻的過去及想像的對話中移動。劇本甫發表即榮獲1949年普立茲獎,奠定了他在美國劇壇的地位。該劇不只成為美國百老匯舞台劇名作,並多次拍成電影,翻譯為多國文字,在世界各地上演,堪稱二十世紀美國極具代表性的文學作品之一。 作者簡介 亞瑟.米勒(Arthur Miller, 1915-2005)生長於紐約猶太中產階級家庭,美國經濟大蕭條時家道中落,中學畢業就自行工作謀生。後來就讀密西根大學新聞系,並開始從事劇本創作。1949年以劇作《推銷員之死》一舉贏得普立茲獎及紐約劇評人圈內獎,當時年僅33歲。米勒一生創作豐碩,被譽為「美國得獎最多的劇作家」。他的劇作與易卜生的寫實主義風格一脈相承,反映現實人生,著重探討家庭、道德和個人責任感。其他重要劇作有All My Sons(1947)、A Memory of Two Mondays(1955)、A View from the Bridge(1955)等。 〈A Penguin Classic 〉 Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Christopher W. E. Bigsby. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. ISBN 9780141180977 書號 20160036