
John Osborne's Look Back in Anger
Aleks Sierz


What readers are saying
Readers appreciate 'Look Back in Anger' for its engaging exploration of post-war discontent and the complexity of its main character, Jimmy Porter. Many highlight the play's historical significance and emotional depth, noting its ability to provoke thought about societal issues. Despite some critiques of pacing and character likeability, the overall reception remains positive, recognizing its place as a classic in British theatre.
In 1956 John Osborne's Look Back in Anger changed the course of English theatre.
'Look Back in Anger presents post-war youth as it really is.
To have done this at all would be a significant achievement; to have done it in a first play is a minor miracle.
All the qualities are there, qualities one had despaired of ever seeing on stage - the drift towards anarchy, the instinctive leftishness, the automatic rejection of "official" attitudes, the surrealist sense of humour... the casual promiscuity, the sense of lacking a crusade worth fighting for and, underlying all these, the determination that no one who dies shall go unmourned.' Kenneth Tynan, Observer, 13 May 1956
'Look Back in Anger... has its inarguable importance as the beginning of a revolution in the British theatre, and as the central and most immediately influential expression of the mood of its time, the mood of the "angry young man".' John Russell Taylor
Look Back in Anger - Highlights
Look Back in Anger (Faber) is a British play written by John Osborne and published by Faber & Faber in London (1960).
Digital editions available on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play (eISBN 9780571300877).
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Faber & Faber · 1960 · 112 pp
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