Strindberg: Five Plays

Rating:
Summary: "Since dreams are more often painful than happy..."
Review: In the author's introduction to "A Dream Play", Strindberg focuses on what he sees as the real nature of dreams-- disconnected and painful, with their own strange logic. I think he captures something of that feeling in all of the five plays in this collection, even given that some of his plays come more explicitly from his symbolic works.

In this collection, the reader is presented with the classic Strindberg themes-- the emancipated woman, rebellion, religious symbolism, and always in every way the search for meaning.

_The Father_ pits a man and woman against each other in a destructive effort to control their daughter's destiny.

_Miss Julie_ depicts the seduction and discard of a silly young girl who is harshly confronted with the basic coldness of life.

_Dance of Death_ is a grim look at a marriage based on hatred, as an ex-actress and an army captain are stuck together on an isolated island.

In _A Dream Play_ Indra's daughter is sent to earth to live as best as she can among mortals.

_The Ghost Sonata_ explores dream logic in three movements. A meditation on the difference between just and proper.

A decent translation, at least I didn't trip over it as awkward. A sad and dislocating book to read, and rare in that it's worth reading as literature without needing to consider its staging to see its value.

Rating:
Summary: "Since dreams are more often painful than happy..."
Review: In the author's introduction to "A Dream Play", Strindberg focuses on what he sees as the real nature of dreams-- disconnected and painful, with their own strange logic. I think he captures something of that feeling in all of the five plays in this collection, even given that some of his plays come more explicitly from his symbolic works.

In this collection, the reader is presented with the classic Strindberg themes-- the emancipated woman, rebellion, religious symbolism, and always in every way the search for meaning.

_The Father_ pits a man and woman against each other in a destructive effort to control their daughter's destiny.

_Miss Julie_ depicts the seduction and discard of a silly young girl who is harshly confronted with the basic coldness of life.

_Dance of Death_ is a grim look at a marriage based on hatred, as an ex-actress and an army captain are stuck together on an isolated island.

In _A Dream Play_ Indra's daughter is sent to earth to live as best as she can among mortals.

_The Ghost Sonata_ explores dream logic in three movements. A meditation on the difference between just and proper.

A decent translation, at least I didn't trip over it as awkward. A sad and dislocating book to read, and rare in that it's worth reading as literature without needing to consider its staging to see its value.

Rating:
Summary: Ghost Sonata: beautiful and haunting
Review: The Ghost Sonata is one of the most beautiful and haunting works I have ever experienced.

Rating:
Summary: the best introduction to Strindberg's world
Review: This is a pretty decent translation and an outstanding point of departure for Strindberg's strange, strange dramatic world. I speak and read Swedish and have studied Strindberg in some depth, but I still find this an evocative and stimulating collection.