130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery πŸš€ Auckland Bookstore β€’ Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Life Of Galileo

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Life of Galileo dramatises the struggle between scientific inquiry and oppressive ideology through the story of Galileo Galilei. Despite fear and coercion from the Inquisition, Galileo pursues his revolutionary discoveries about the solar system, publicly recants under pressure but continues his work in secret, ultimately aiding in the dissemination of his findings. The play explores the tension between truth and authority, highlighting the personal and social costs of challenging established dogma.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2499
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This edition is ideal for students of theatre and literature seeking a comprehensive understanding of Brecht's work, featuring extensive commentary, thematic discussion, and study aids. It suits readers interested in historical drama, scientific history, and explorations of authority versus free inquiry.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

In John Willett's translation, this edition contains expert notes on the author's life and work, historical and political background to the play, photographs from stage productions and a glossary of difficult words and phrases

In John Willett's translation, this edition contains expert notes on the author's life and work, historical and political background to the play, photographs from stage productions and a glossary of difficult words and phrases

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This Student Edition of Brecht's classic dramatisation of the conflict between free enquiry and official ideology features an extensive introduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion of the context, themes, characters, style, and language. Additionally, there are questions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text. It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature.

Along with Mother Courage, the character of Galileo is one of Brecht's greatest creations, immensely live, human, and complex. Unable to resist his appetite for scientific investigation, Galileo's heretical discoveries about the solar system bring him to the attention of the Inquisition. He is scared into publicly abjuring his theories but, despite his self-contempt, goes on working in private, eventually helping to smuggle his writings out of the country.

As an examination of the problems that face not only the scientist but also the whole spirit of free inquiry when brought into conflict with the requirements of government or official ideology, Life of Galileo has few equals. Written in exile from 1937 to 1939 and first performed in Zurich in 1943, Galileo was first staged in English in 1947 by Joseph Losey in a version jointly prepared by Brecht and Charles Laughton, who played the title role. Printed here is the complete translation by John Willett.

Series: Student Editions

View all
  • DNA
    This new Student Edition of Dennis Kelly’s popular play DNA contains introductory commentary and notes by Clare Finburgh Delijani, which provides an in-depth analysis of the play’s context and themes. As well as the complete text of the play, this new Methuen Drama Student Edition includes: An introduction to the playwright and social context of the play Discussion of the...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Death of a Salesman
    Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am. Willy Loman is an ageing travelling salesman haunted, driven, and yet held back by empty dreams of prosperity and success. Justly celebrated as one of the most famous...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Our Country's Good
    Australia 1789. A young married lieutenant is directing rehearsals of the first play ever to be staged in that country. With only two copies of the text, a cast of convicts, and one leading lady who may be about to be hanged, conditions are hardly ideal... Winner of the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award in 1988, and many...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The House Of Bernarda Alba
    Bernarda Alba is a widow, and her five daughters are incarcerated in mourning along with her. One by one, they make a bid for freedom, with tragic consequences. Lorca's tale depicts the repression of women within Catholic Spain in the years before the war. The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca's last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Blood Brothers
    Blood Brothers by Willy Russell is a 1983 play with music that tells the compelling story of twin brothers separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. One of the twins is given away to the wealthy Mrs Lyons and they grow up as friends, unaware of their true relationship, until an inevitable quarrel unleashes a...
    Paperback
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Crucible
    Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name! In a small tight-knit community, gossip and rumour...
    Paperback
    $1999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Wasted
    Three old friends in their mid-twenties. One remarkable day. For Ted, Danny and Charlotte, it’s time to seize control. Make a difference. Change things. This is it.A day trip through the parks and raves and cafes of South London, where life is what you make it. The rapid-fire words of Kate Tempest paint a picture of lives less ordinary in...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • On Sale
    18% off
    A Streetcar Named Desire
    This revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Bess Rowen, Assistant Professor at Villanova University, US, which looks in particular at the play's treatment of rape, vulnerable people, mental institutions (especially in connection to Williams's own family), sexuality and sexual desire. A Streetcar Named Desire shows a turbulent confrontation between traditional values in the American South – an old-world graciousness...
    Paperback
    $1800
    Usually:
    $2199
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • All My Sons
    β€˜His drama is a piece of expert dramatic construction. Mr. Miller has woven his characters into a tangle of plot that springs naturally out of the circumstances of life today.’NEW YORK TIMES Three years on from the disappearance of his son, successful businessman Joe Keller has made a comfortable life for his family in America’s Midwest. Despite being accused of...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Antigone
    The gods never move faster than when punishing men with the consequences of their own actions. Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone's rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive. The people dare not object, but the...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Doll’s House
    This revised Student Edition of Ibsen’s popular play contains introductory commentary and notes by Sophie Duncan, which offer a contemporary lens on the play's gender politics and consider seminal productions and adaptations of the play into the 21st century. As well as the complete text of the play itself, this new Methuen Drama Student Edition includes a: Chronology of the...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Importance of Being Earnest
    After all, who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? Why should there be one law for me and another for women? Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, a 'trivial play for serious people', is a sparkling comedy of manners that epitomises wit and style. This...
    Paperback
    $2199
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780413577801

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 12 June 1986

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Methuen Drama

Edition: New edition

Illustration: 5 b&w photographs of stage productions

Contributors:

  • Translated by John Willett
  • Edited by Hugh Rorrison
  • Volume editor Hugh Rorrison

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 164g

Pages: 192

About the Author

A major dramatist of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
was the founder of one of the most influential theatre companies, the
Berliner Ensemble, and the creator of some of the landmark plays of the
twentieth century: The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His plays and dramatic theory are central to the study of modern theatre.

Also by Bertolt Brecht

View all
  • On Sale
    20% off
    Aesthetics and Politics
    Delve into the profound and influential Marxist aesthetic debates that shaped the course of 20th-century intellectual history with Aesthetics and Politics. This seminal work assembles the pivotal texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art that took place between the 1930s and 1950s in German cultureβ€”an era that witnessed an unparalleled tradition of major aesthetic discourse. The book...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Usually:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Collected Short Stories of Bertolt Brecht
    Everyone knows that Bertolt Brecht was one of the great 20th-century innovators in theatre - the literary-theatrical equivalent of a Picasso or Stravinsky - and Germany's greatest poet of the last century, but the playwright was also a dazzling writer of stories. Storytelling permeated his art as a dramatist; fundamentally, in his plays, he was a storyteller. Collected Short Stories...
    Paperback
    $5899
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Tales of Mr. Keuner
    From the 1920s through the 1950s, Bertolt Brecht wrote a number of short, fictionalised comments on contemporary life, politics, and thought. Through the dramatic events of the first half of the twentieth century, Brecht’s Mr. Keuner offered up aphorisms, stray thoughts, and fragments of anecdote that punctured contemporary self-regard about religion, politics, business, and more. Deceptively light in tone, and...
    Paperback
    $4099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
    In this chronicle of the European Thirty Years War, taking place between the years 1624 and 1636, Mother Courage follows the armies back and forth across Europe, selling provisions and liquor from her canteen wagon to whomever she can. One by one she loses her children to the war but will not part with her livelihoodβ€”the wagon. The Berlin production...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
    Mother Courage and Her Children was first performed in Zurich in 1941 and is usually seen as Brecht's greatest work. Remaining a powerful indictment of war and social injustice, it is an epic drama set in the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years' War. The plot follows the resilient Mother Courage, who survives by running a commissary business that profits...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
    Also known as The Private Life of the Master Race, this is a sequence of twenty-four realistic sketches showing how "ordinary" life under the Nazis was subtly permeated by suspicion and anxiety. Written in exile in Denmark and first staged in 1938, it was inspired in part by Brecht's recent trip to Moscow where he had been researching tasks for...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
    This new Student Edition, featuring the classic John Willett translation of the play, includes an introduction by Katherine Hollander, which explores the following: Contexts: Thirty Years War (1618-1648); World War II and exile; sources; influential figures such as Brecht, Margarete Steffin, Helene Weigel, and Karin Michaelis. Themes: War, nature, capitalism. Dramatic devices: Epic theatre. Production history and critical reception. Academic...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle
    Written in exile during the Second World War, the story of Brecht's classic play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, subverts an ancient Chinese taleβ€”echoed in the Judgement of Solomonβ€”in which two women claim the same child. The message of Brecht's parable is that resources should go to those who will make the best use of them. Thanks to the rascally judge,...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle
    Brecht projects an ancient Chinese story onto a realistic setting in Soviet Georgia. In a theme that echoes the Judgment of Solomon, two women argue over the possession of a child. Thanks to the unruly judge, Azdak (one of Brecht's most vivid creations), natural justice is done and the peasant Grusha keeps the child she loves, even though she is...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
    Brecht's series of twenty-four interconnected playlets describe events which took place in ordinary German households in the 1930s. They dramatise with clinical precision the suspicion and anxiety experienced by ordinary people, particularly Jewish citizens, as the power of Hitler grew. Written in exile in Denmark and first staged in 1938, it was inspired in part by his recent trip to...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
    This version of Brecht's great anti-war play by playwright David Hare was premiered by the National Theatre, London, in November 1995. It adopts a freer approach to the text than many editions, adapting the original rather than offering a close translation. In this chronicle of the Thirty Years War, Mother Courage follows the armies back and forth across Europe, selling...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
    Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler. Brecht recasts it into a fictional, small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade in the 1930s. The satirical allegory combines Brecht's Epic style of theatre with black comedy and...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Education & Reference

View all
  • Revenge of the Tipping Point
    Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do elite universities care so much about sports? What is...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Body Keeps the Score
    The Body Keeps the Score by Dr Bessel van der Kolk is a compelling and compassionate exploration of the deep-seated impact of trauma on the human body and mind. This groundbreaking work delves into the complex causes of trauma and paints a vivid picture of the revolutionary treatments that are enabling countless individuals to reclaim their lives filled with purpose...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Song of the Birds
    A stunning and panoramic history of native birds in Aotearoa, from the bestselling author of The Meaning of Trees For millions of years, the song of the birds echoed throughout Aotearoa, with no one around to hear it. While the arrival of humans would transform their story forever - birds may have changed us even more. In this beautiful and...
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $5500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Lucky You're Tough
    New Release
    Lucky You're Tough
    Lucky You're Tough chronicles the early life of helicopter pilot and NZSAS soldier Mark Law, from growing up in the rural wilds of Whangamōmona through to surviving a series of life-threatening events that would shape his life and career. After a career as a badged soldier in the NZSAS that led to an intriguing stint with the British SAS and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Kitchen Confidential
    The classic bestseller from the star of Parts Unknown and No Reservations: 25th Anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Irvine Welsh. BEFORE THERE WAS THE BEAR, THERE WAS BOURDAIN. β€˜Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’ β€” A.A. Gill β€˜Fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and pungent aioli’ β€” Daily Telegraph After twenty-five years of sex,...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Age Code
    What if the food you eat could rewind your biological clock? 'Clear and compelling' β€” Chris van Tulleken 'Really interesting and insightful' β€” Joe Wicks 'Fascinating' β€” Tim Spector From the rising incidence of cancer in the under-50s to increased infertility rates, there are signs everywhere that growing numbers of us are ageing too quickly. Why? Many believe there’s one...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Fungi of Aotearoa
    The complete introduction to finding, identifying and using mushrooms and other fungi in New Zealand. Enter and explore the fascinating world of fungi. In this practical and up-to-date guide, forager and fungus enthusiast Liv Sisson shares her top tips and takes the reader on a journey to discover the unique and diverse fungi Aotearoa has to offer. Discover how to...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    12% off
    One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    Paperback
    $2800
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Hormone Health is Mental Health
    New Release
    Hormone Health is Mental Health
    Hormone Health is Mental Health is a lifechanging guide to understanding perimenopause and midlife women's mental health - and how understanding your hormones is the first step to feeling like yourself again. This book is for women in their thirties, forties, and fifties who feel like they're falling apart. Women who feel like their brains and bodies are betraying them,...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    23% off
    1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
    In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...
    Paperback
    $1000
    Usually:
    $1299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    15% off
    Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1
    Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison is the ultimate companion for anyone eager to learn the beautiful and complex Maori language. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to brush up on your skills, this workbook offers a structured and engaging way to immerse yourself in te reo Maori. Designed to be accessible regardless of your starting...
    Paperback
    $1700
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.