“Off and on, of late years, I have studied the history and development of all religions with immense interest as being for me, at least, the most illuminating ‘case histories’ of the inner life of man.”—Eugene O’Neill writing to M. C. Sparrow, 1929

While it is commonly accepted that Eu­gene O’Neill studied Oriental mystical religions and that this study may be detected in some of his less successful experimental plays (Lazarus Laughed, The Fountain, Marco Millions) there has not been an effort to con­sider systematically his “immense interest” and the influence it had on O’Neill’s thought and writing. Robinson explores the tension between Occidental and Oriental elements in the playwright’s art, examining both the sources of the conflict and its manifestation in selected plays written between 1916 and 1942.

Through an examination of O’Neill’s cor­respondence, research library, and manuscript materials (some of which have pre­viously been unavailable for study) Robinson is able to reveal the origins of O’Neill’s Ori­entalism. An easy familiarity with the com­plex interrelationships of Eastern and West­ern religions and the Oriental thought that underlies the ideas of many Western philoso­phers, allows Robinson to address the in­tricate problem of Oriental influences on O’Neill’s favorite Western sources, including Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Jung, Strindberg, and Emerson.

Finally in a play-by-play exegesis, Robin­son traces the course of O’Neill’s mysticism from its apparent repudiation in the deeply flawed Dynamo to its synthesis in The Iceman Cometh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Hughie, where Eastern ideas of maya, dy­namic polarity, and the emptiness of the uni­verse are again evident.

The darkly autobiographical character of O’Neill’s plays and their oblique relationships to American culture continue to fascinate students of modern American drama. O’Neill’s plays, far from being relegated to the library since the author’s death in 1953, continue to be performed; and the appearance of each new posthumous work has received extraordinary attention. A recent biography of the playwright has enjoyed considerable success. Now John Raleigh’s highly original book on O’Neill’s plays combines a study of the autobiographical elements with perhaps the most comprehensive view yet taken of the mind and art of the playwright. Mr. Raleigh examines the whole of O’Neill’s cosmos and details the whole of his aesthetic.

Mr. Raleigh strictly concerns himself with an analysis and evaluation of the completed, published plays. He deals with the autobiographical elements and with the cultural genesis of the plays, but he is concerned primarily with the dramatist’s created world. He analyzes and discusses the beginning, middle, and final periods of O’Neill’s career, but relates them closely to the whole of O’Neill’s work and to the specific, American cultural strains he sees in O’Neill’s writings. He is most perceptive in demonstrating O’Neill’s character as an American writer, and leaves no doubt that O’Neill is one of our literary giants.