#10 in Drama & theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire
- 142
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
- Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a short, merciless play, driven by the clash between Blanche DuBois and her sister’s rough household. Tennessee Williams fills a shabby New Orleans apartment with tension, and some readers admire the craft while admitting it is painful to read. People who do not enjoy drama on the page may find it hard going; those prepared for a dark family tragedy without consolation get one of unusual intensity.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams which was first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans rented by her younger sister Stella Kowalski and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 428 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 74% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Drama & theatre average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.7 | 36 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 392 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Streetcar Named Desire?
It has 142 pages — shorter than 53% of the ranked books in Drama & theatre.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Drama & theatre — with scores between 7.1 and 7.8, closest to this book.
