The Autumn Garden

by Lillian Hellman

In the words of New York : "Miss Hellman is contemplating the meaning of middle age to an assorted group of people gathered together in a summer home. All of them are in one way or another frustrated and unhappy. Most of them are under the illusion that some day the things from which they suffer will be removed and they will be once more at peace. But when they come to see themselves, they realize that man is the sum of his past life, that they are incapable of any real revolt against their past, and that what they have made of themselves in earlier years is what they are when age approaches. Nor are they tragic figures. All of them are troubled average people, human, commonplace but they are studied with great understanding and a touch of intelligently unsentimental compassion."

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction, Classics, Audiobook, American

98 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 1951

About the author

Lillian Florence "Lilly" Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American dramatist and screenwriter famously blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947–52.

Hellman was praised for sacrificing her career by refusing to answer questions by HUAC; but her denial that she had ever belonged to the Communist Party was easily disproved, and her veracity was doubted by many, including war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and literary critic Mary McCarthy.

She adapted her semi-autobiographical play The Little Foxes into a screenplay which received an Academy Award nomination in 1942.

Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett for thirty years until his death.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully acted.

[Joanne Fate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love plays and haven't read, seen, and listened to enough of them. I've listened to some on Audible and find them to have excellent casts which helps me enjoy them more. Lillian Hellman was such a great writer, and a hero for not giving out names during the McCarthy trials.

I read that this was her favorite play, and I agree that it is very good. It hasn't aged as well as I had hoped which is why the four stars for story. I still give it 5 stars overall in Audible because the cast makes it a compelling listen. It is about a bunch of friends and family gathering in the fall (early fall perhaps?). There's secrets, love, the end of love, and humor. The humor really made this better.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed middle-aged people. Perhaps Hellman’s least melodramatic, and so best, play.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very much enjoying these audio presentations of popular plays. The Autumn Garden was written and produced in 1951. The audio production was done in 2009.

Every year the same group gathers at a resort for a 2 week vacation at a resort that they have been frequenting since their youth. This year a member of the original clan,who has not attended for years, drops in for for a surprise visit and starts a cascade of events that uncovers their pasts and not in a good way, exposing their lives of quiet desperation. They all catch a fleeting glimpse of who they really are and quickly turn aside without even an attempt to change. The thing they are forgetting is that those who do not know them see them as they are. Old, unchanging and hopelessly adrift in the current world.
There are some very well done supporting characters that show that change can come if you want it, but not necessarily the change that you might have been hoping for.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great cast puts on a show worthy of Chekhov. The style is definitely his: a country home with lots of visitors, drunks who are maudlin and self-pitying and wealthy and formerly wealthy folks lording it over their social/economic inferiors. Some hard truths and some fractures fixed and some wounds that will never heal. Lovely from beginning to end.

[Eirini · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ως ακουστικό βιβλίο ήταν αρκετά παραστατικό, λογικό βέβαια, αφού υπήρχε αναπόφευκτα σκηνοθεσία.
Ως προς το περιεχόμενο, δεν ενθουσιάστηκα, υπήρχε ένα πέπλο πεσσιμισμού και φθοράς στην ιστορία, το οποίο φυσικά κάνει την ιστορία ρεαλιστική.

[Audiobook Accomplice (Gillian) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good… but exasperating… and kinda sorta depressing… can I shoot m’self now…?
3-stars. Good writing but who wants to listen to sooo many characters worth throttling?
My Full Review →

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was intrigued by some of the plot lines but they were left unanswered - not my favorite of her plays.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Island of Unwanted Toys, but in the South.

[Nanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hellman's plays resonate today despite having been written so long ago. (Little Foxes is a particular favorite.) The mark of a true talent.

[Sophie Bloor · Rating 2 out of 5]

No offense but I had no idea what was going on.

[Karen White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny yet profound, this theatrical production amuses listeners while providing food for thought. Very entertaining.

[Brian McCann · Rating 2 out of 5]

First two acts are painful, talky exposition. Act 3 is better, but it’s not my favorite Hellman by any means.

[eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[LMTZ]

Audiobook Play. Half through, it's a DNF for me. I didn't like it and had difficulty distinguishing the characters. (I'm sure watching the play would be better. )

[El Picaflor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly riveting.

The story was well-written, but it doesn't have that "je ne sais quoi" that separates it from other plays.

[Kaelin J Merry · Rating 1 out of 5]

What not impressed.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has got to be a collection of the most miserable people ever assembled in one play. I've read prison dramas and Chekov with more likable characters and more redeeming qualities.

[Joseph Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setup in the first two acts is quite interesting. Then act three comes along and the arc of the play bends a completely different way, tonally and (to a lesser extent) thematically. Sophie is an outstanding character, as is Ned.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a play about the inertia of life, our tendency to accept what life shapes, our resistance to risk change, until it all becomes too late.

Some favorite quotes:
"I think as one grows older it is more and more necessary to reach out your hand for the sturdy old vines you knew when you were young and let them lead you back to the roots of things that matter."

"I was too good for those who wanted me and not good enough for those I wanted...Life can be hard for such people and they seldom understand why, and end bitter and confused."

"So at any given moment you're only the sum of your life up to then. There are no big moments you can reach unless you've a pile of smaller moments to stand on. That big hour of decision, the turning point in your life, the some day you've counted on when you'd suddenly wipe out your past mistakes, do the work you'd never done, think the way you'd never thought, have what you'd never had - it just doesn't come suddenly. You've trained yourself yourself for it while you waited - or you've let it all run past you and and frittered yourself away."

[Vel Veeter]

Lillian Hellman is a fascinating writer in no small part because of her interesting life. Her plays can be mixed, though I liked this one. This play takes place in a boarding house in New Orleans (or thereabouts). The play mostly contains middle-aged characters and couples, and enough younger people to bedevil and beguile those aging people. The result is….well, what’s the opposite of a comedy of errors? A farce? Kind of. But anyway, rather than this partially being a comedy about a bunch of drunks throwing a week-long party and lines getting crossed and redrawn like a Woody Allen or Iris Murdoch story, here’s it’s played seriously. The consequences are not dire as in a melodrama, but frustratingly real where the hint of scandal might not ruin someone, but it does mean that they have to leave to try to salvage their unfair new reputation. And of course, alcohol does a lot of the heavy lifting here.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to a recored-live production of the play, which dates from 1951. The mostly middle-aged, mostly unhappy characters conflict with one another in ways that intensify their own awareness of their unhappiness. Having enjoyed a few of Lillian Hellman's other works, I was myself unhappy to find this one gloomy, fraught, and disappointing.

[Clare Swapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really showed a different perspective of the atomic bombings than what our textbooks say. I think I like the view in this story better. I'm so glad Mariko found new hope and purpose for her life.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather ponderous as a read...interesting tidbit is Dashiell Hammett's contribution to the play shortly before he was nabbed by Joe McCarthy and company for being a "communist." It is definitely better live, than in print, and Hammett's lines for Griggs are the most moving in the play.

[T.tara Turk-Haynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hellman's lines and Hammett's lines are so obviously separate but that's not terrible. Wish I could've seen this on its feet.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose exhausts me...and Sophie is the smartest in the bunch!

[Deborah]

Staged reading (I think) of the play.
Maybe a radio production?
By LA Theater Works.
Well-acted, but the play is dated.
Some humor and some drama.