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Title: Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill, Keach Stacy ISBN: 0-694-52346-1 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 01 July, 2000 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 3 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (36 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Timeless themes revolving around the dysfunctional Tyrones!
Comment: I haven't actually read a play since college and I picked this up because I am going to see the Broadway production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night", starring Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennhey,and I always find that I appreciate shows like that more if I am familiar with the play itself. It was an enjoyable genre change for me!
What makes this play particularly interesting is the autobiographical nature of the plot (so disturbingly autobiographical, in fact, that O'Neill would not allow its publication and production until after his death!). O'Neill dedicated the play to his wife, basically stating that writing this was his way of coming to grips with his own past and the "4 haunted Tryrones" of his life. I imagine that when this first appeared in the theaters in the 1950s, it struck a sensitive and somewhat controversial chord amongst the public since issues such as drug addiction and alcoholism were not common topics in popular entertainment at the time. I also enjoyed all the literary references to the likes of Shakespeare, Baudelaire and Swineburne (and so forth!). It made me want to acquaint myself with such literary talents once again!
This is another example of a piece of literature that reaches across the decades with timeless themes such as familial love, loyalty, jealousy, guilt and betrayal, as well as depression, addiction and greed. While I pitied and even despised some of the qualities I saw in these characters, I couldn't help empathizing with Mary's nervous addiction as well as James' feeling of disappointment in his past failures. In other words, these characters are all so human, that I couldn't help being drawn into the realistic pathos of their lives.
Rating: 5
Summary: Masterpiece
Comment: There are many themes in this story - drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, egoism, and blame. What makes the play so powerful is its ability to show us a family with horrible problems and horrible habits, but still make that family likeable. We still hope for them. A heroin-addicted mother torments herself with the past. Her egomaniac husband, a washed-up actor, postures and struts to cover his feelings of responsibility. Their sons battle depression and alcoholism, and neither ever feel good about themselves. A cycle of blame makes its way continually through the house, a run-down affair often shrouded in fog. This fantastic (if depressing) play is a meaty, moody work that is almost as good to read as it is to watch.
Rating: 5
Summary: The light at the end of the tunnel...
Comment: ...does not exist. That seems to be the message of this dark, depressing -- and yet, enthralling and mysteriously beautiful drama. As bleak as it is, its essential humanity has rendered an immortal classic. O'Neill, of course, was not just the first major figure in American drama: he practically made it, giving it a legitimacy and relevancy for the first time. As with many subsequent American plays -- think of Death of a Salesman or most of Tennessee William's better-known plays -- it centers on a family. In this particular case, the family happens to be a close reflection of O'Neill's own; the character of Edmund is his alter ego. In fact, the play was so autobiographical that O'Neill would not have it performed until after his death. It recounts a day in the life of the family by offering interactions between every possible combination of the four members of the family. The play is stunning and stark in its brutal depiction of the Tyrone family, a series of frightfully honest vignettes that destroys the hallowed ideal image of the close, contented American family. All members of the Tyrone family have their demons and their reasons for the inhumanity that they show toward each other. O'Neill does not judge them: he merely presents them as they are, without pretense or adornment. Hardly even a glimmer of light appears in the play, and the ending comes and goes without leaving even a single shred of hope. With subject matter like this, why, then, has the play remained popular for half a century, and why does it retain its power? For one thing, its sheer, unabated emotion touches a deep, almost primal, human chord. It speaks to us in the brutally honest way that a television sitcom never could. Most people probably see more of themselves in the Tyrone than they would like to admit, even to themselves. Their quarrels are probably not as striking and unfamiliar as most people would like to think. The play touches the heart even as it touches the soul, leaving the reader (or the viewer) drenched in an overwhelming sea of emotion at play's end. It is a stunning play that cuts straight to the core of a large part of the darker side of the American experience. Unlike many great plays, it also reads very well and very smoothly on the page. Anyone interested in classic drama or American literature will find a dark goldmine here.
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Title: The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill ISBN: 0375709177 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams ISBN: 0451167783 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1989 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller ISBN: 0140481346 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 06 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee ISBN: 0451158717 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1988 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Three Plays : Desire Under The Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill ISBN: 0679763961 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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