The Crucible: (Penguin Orange Collection)

Very disappointed by the quality of the book; the paper was jagged at the edges and unfinished. The paper quality itself was also poor.

"The Crucible" is the play of the 20th century for unflinchingly dissecting mass hysteria or the strange human tendency toward persecution of other humans for made-up, invented reasons. Dating back to the witch burnings at the stake in medieval Europe, these same witch trials made their way to American soil in Salem, Massachusetts, where two evil nine and ten year old girls, Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams, falsely accused adult neighbors of working with the Devil and stood by and watched as thirty of them were murdered by the theocracy judges, who themselves did it mostly to feel powerful.Mass hysteria resurfaces in American life every 30 years or so. There was McCarthyism, and today you have Derangement Syndrome toward the current president from the left. To anyone sane, liberals afflicted with derangement syndrome sound completely nuts, a new manifestation of mass hysteria or group-delusion, which seems to arise from a combination of groupthink, conformity, and the odd love of persecution of others that the Crucible attempts to explore. It can ultimately come up with no final diagnosis for the willingness of humans to believe clearly fabricated charges and pretend that the Emperor is fully clothed when he is naked and go on and cause/watch the killings. Only the Crucible, by being art, not historical journalism, can approach this most dysfunctional of maladaptive human behaviors.

Very good play. Important. So sad what happened. Not sure if it's relevant anymore, since witches are cool and Proctor is a pedo (sorry, pederast? I'm not really up on my lingos) and that's definitely not cool. Also the underlying allegory of the piece as representing McCarthy's deliberate political inflation of the Red Scare in order to maintain authority and conservativism is... OH DANG THIS IS A REALLY GOOD PLAY! VERY IMPORTANT!

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE CONSISTENT NON-READERS AND DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BOOKS ...THIS BOOK IS PERFECTLY FINE..."Rough cut" is also known as "deckled edged" - the pages of the book are not smooth, but have a more "antiquarian" look and feel. Many books have a ‘rough cut’ and it was mentioned in the information Section that this book was rough cut so most should have known prior to buying it had you bothered to read the information.

This perfectly portrays humanity's gullibility, piousness, and knack for hysteria, while at the same time demonstrating the strength of those who would rather die than provide a false confession.I am now going to buy everything Arthur Miller ever wrote.

I love to read things from the past that inspired even better things in the future.