The Habit of Art: A Play

Alan Bennett

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Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W. H. Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first in twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, among others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station.

Alan Bennett's new play is as much about the theater as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion's spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

Book Details

Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
Publish Date: Sep 14th, 2010
Pages: 112
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.25in - 5.50in - 0.30in - 0.25lb
EAN: 9780865479449
Categories: • European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh• Shakespeare• American - General

About the Author

Bennett, Alan: - Alan Bennett has been one of England's leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His work includes the Talking Heads television series, and the stage plays Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, and The Madness of King George III. His play, The History Boys (now a major motion picture), won six Tony Awards, including best play, in 2006. In the same year his memoir, Untold Stories, was a number-one bestseller in the United Kingdom.

Praise for this book

"A multi-levelled work that deals with sex, death, creativity, biography and much else besides . . . beautifully written . . . deeply moving." --Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Bennett the maestro returns with a multi-layered masterpiece . . . hilariously provocative . . . mixes hard-won wisdom about such matters as the meaning of collaboration, the dubious value of biography . . . and flurries of delirious silliness." --Paul Taylor, The Independent

"Deft, amusing, and so intelligently and generously crafted that it makes you feel clever just watching it . . . The Habit of Art is a richly thought-provoking piece about many things, including artistic creation, the vulgarity of biography, sexuality, friendship, the bubble of reputation, but it also has an intriguingly autobiographical feel at times. What sort of artist have I been? Will anything survive?" --Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times