The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
_shonahenderson's review against another edition
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
_shonahenderson's review against another edition
dark
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
batbones's review against another edition
5.0
Words are overlapping echoes, a babbling hush of voices like the lapping of the sea against rocks and sand. In them, the characters live their coloured dreams and muted torments. Appropriately subtitled 'a play for voices', Under Milk Wood is best rendered when read aloud, giving full expression to its poetic music. One thing I admire most of Dylan Thomas is his dexterity in handling language; his instincts for rhyme, colour are equal to the mastery of Burgess and Joyce. Thomasian language is feeling and playfulness, and bitter poignancy; it conveys every trembling thread of sentiment, right down to the void of nothing. In this poem-play, Thomas renders with all sensitivity and honesty lives in as many ways as life can be lived - splendidly, dully, in secret, openly, sensitively, blithely. His diction is dreamlike and diamond-sharp - a single, acute sentence opens up yet another dark, glimmering facet of an otherwise small-town nobody: a reverend who delights in poetry and dips his pen in cocoa composing verse, and a retired, hardened sea captain who mourns his deceased love, the headmistress and the sailor who maintain an erotic mutual attraction that is never spoken of. Placidity is gossamer thin, punctured/punctuated by thoughts of sex and murder. It is an acute picture of life in its shades of pleasure and unannounced pain.
"SECOND VOICE: Gossamer Beynon high-heels out of school. The sun hums down through the cotton flowers of her dress into the bell of her heart and buzzes in the honey there and couches and kisses, lazy-loving and boozed, in her red-berried breast. Eyes run from the trees and windows of the street, steaming 'Gossamer', and strip her to the nipples and the bees. She blazes naked past the Sailors Arms ... Sinbad Sailor places on her thighs still dewdamp from the first mangrowing cock-crow garden his reverent goat-bearded hands."
"FIRST VOICE:
Mr Pugh, in the School House opposite, takes up the morning tea to Mrs Pugh, and whispers on the stairs.
MR. PUGH:
Here's your arsenic, dear.
And your weedkiller biscuit.
I've throttled your parakeet.
I've spat in your vases.
I've put cheese in the mouseholes.
Here's your...
... nice tea, dear.
MRS PUGH:
Too much sugar.
MR PUGH:
You haven't tasted it yet, dear."
"SECOND VOICE: Gossamer Beynon high-heels out of school. The sun hums down through the cotton flowers of her dress into the bell of her heart and buzzes in the honey there and couches and kisses, lazy-loving and boozed, in her red-berried breast. Eyes run from the trees and windows of the street, steaming 'Gossamer', and strip her to the nipples and the bees. She blazes naked past the Sailors Arms ... Sinbad Sailor places on her thighs still dewdamp from the first mangrowing cock-crow garden his reverent goat-bearded hands."
"FIRST VOICE:
Mr Pugh, in the School House opposite, takes up the morning tea to Mrs Pugh, and whispers on the stairs.
MR. PUGH:
Here's your arsenic, dear.
And your weedkiller biscuit.
I've throttled your parakeet.
I've spat in your vases.
I've put cheese in the mouseholes.
Here's your...
... nice tea, dear.
MRS PUGH:
Too much sugar.
MR PUGH:
You haven't tasted it yet, dear."
lululewin's review against another edition
3.0
It is a great piece of writing and I would have rated it higher but it’s just not really my cup of tea
jen_16's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
lydia_harrisx's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
kit_kate's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
ohainesva's review against another edition
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A nice book about folks in town.Â
sfletcher26's review against another edition
4.0
Poetry has never been my thing but plays yes. I thought I'd therefore try to approach Thomas' Under Milk Wood in this way, as a play. In some ways it has worked because I have enjoyed it but I haven't found it easy.
I think to really appreciate the piece it has to be listened to, not because it's easier to listen to but because that's the medium it was written for, the voice.
Update.
Having downloaded the play this morning and listened to it on the way to work I can truly appreciate the brilliance of the work. What was interesting was reading the text I have (which claims to be the definitive text (don't they all)) with the version I was listening too. The differences are few but interesting in that the dramatised version seems to have left out some of the more overtly sexual references though retained all of the implied references.
I think to really appreciate the piece it has to be listened to, not because it's easier to listen to but because that's the medium it was written for, the voice.
Update.
Having downloaded the play this morning and listened to it on the way to work I can truly appreciate the brilliance of the work. What was interesting was reading the text I have (which claims to be the definitive text (don't they all)) with the version I was listening too. The differences are few but interesting in that the dramatised version seems to have left out some of the more overtly sexual references though retained all of the implied references.