Six Plays by Lillian Hellman

As a collection of plays, this is a work worth looking into. Watch on the Rhine and Children's Hour stand above the rest, I feel, but all of them are good powerful works. Hellman's tone is constant throughout--she deals with serious issues, stereotypes and prejudices, familial promises, feelings

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and compromises. The characters here come across as real, though are in some cases perhaps a bit dated--but, in the end, this is necessary for her themes to come across as they often deal with the passage of time in America. I think Watch on the Rhine especially is effective even on the page, but I'd say all these are worth reading even for a contemporary reader, particularly one who wants to understand more about where we've come from, and for one who can appreciate the most subtle of dramas, and the most subtle tragedy at times as well.

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