Product Description
Anna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It tells the story of a former prostitute who falls in love, but runs into difficulty in turning her life around. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1922.

Act I takes place in the bar, owned by Johnny the Priest and tended by Larry. Old Chris, a coal barge captain, receives a letter from his daughter, a young woman whom he has not seen since she was a baby. They meet at the bar and she agrees to go on the coal barge with him. The rest of the play takes place on the barge.

In Act II, the barge crew rescues Mat Burke and four other men, who were in an open boat after a shipwreck. After not getting along at first, Mat and Anna fall in love.

Act III is a confrontation between Anna, Chris and Mat. Mat wants to marry Anna, Chris does not want them to get married because he doesn't want her to marry a sailor, and Anna is upset with both of them for trying to be in charge of her. Anna tells them the truth about her life, that she was raped while living with her mother's relatives on a Minnesota farm, and then became a prostitute after her time as a nurse's aide. Mat gets very angry, and Mat and Chris both leave.

In Act IV, Mat and Chris return. Anna forgives Chris for not being part of her childhood, and after a dramatic confrontation, Mat forgives Anna for being a prostitute after she promises never to be one again, and Chris agrees to them getting married. It turns out that Chris and Mat have both signed up for the same ship going to South Africa, and they are about to leave the next day, but promise to come home to Anna after the voyage. The play ends there, with a rather unresolved ending. (Quote from wikipedia.org)

About the Author

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Modern Theater
O'Neill's play is an excellent piece of modern theater, combining themes of naturalism and adding the discontinuity of modern life. Anna Christie is a character dangling in a corrupt world, subject to fate in any form: the devil sea, God, mysogyny and double standards, and her own whims. A great read!

Anna Christie -- That Devil Sea
I read this play a few weeks ago and I must say it's fantastic. Of course there are some parts that are disappointing, but Eugene O'Neill draws the characters in such a way that you cannot help but relate to them.

Anna is so strong, so independent, so conflicted, and so human! Even if some people don't like the ending, I think it makes sense the way it is.

Great read, short play, and I think I like it better than Long Day's Journey Into Night, although it's usually regarded as O'Neill's best work.

O'Neill's first momentous play and its unforgettable heroine
With the 1921 production of "Anna Christie," O'Neill's skills as a dramatist finally reached maturity. Entirely revamped from an earlier play ("Chris Christophersen"), this four-act drama depicts a headstrong young woman, Anna, who renounces her life as a prostitute and tracks down the father who abandoned her as a child. Enamored of his new charge and unaware of her past, Christopherson (O'Neill changed the spelling for this version) tries to pamper and protect the daughter he had neglected during her formative years.

Yet Chistopherson has issues of his own: now a captain of a coastal coal barge, he, too, has lived a seafaring live of loose morals and social irresponsibility. Believing that the vigorous demands and easy temptations of a sailor's career have ruined his own life, he has abandoned the sea for good. Confronted with a daughter who initially enjoys life on the ocean, he swears to keep her both from its influence and from the men who make their living from it--with predictable results.

When Anna falls in love with Mat, a stoker for a steamer, she finds herself torn between her father's expectations and her lover's demands, and she discovers that both men, like the clients from her previous life, are buffoonish cads and patronizing bullies. The third act, which depicts the inevitable three-side confrontation between Anna and her two "protectors," is one of the most skillfully scripted clashes in American theater.

The final act, alas, succumbs to a conventional melodramatic mawkishness. Yet overall the play is saved by the faithful rendering of sailor's speech, the emotional depth of its characters, and the (for its time) forward-looking presentation of social ills.

Anna is one of the U.S. theater's most memorable characters
"Anna Christie," the play by the great U.S. writer Eugene O'Neill, won the Pulitzer Prize for the 1921-22 theater season. All these decades later, the play still packs an emotional punch. "Anna Christie" focuses on three characters: Anna, who has had a traumatic life in the United States; her father Chris, a Swedish merchant seaman; and Mat Burke, an Irish stoker who takes an interest in Anna. The play takes place in New York City and on Chris's barge.

"Anna Christie" is a compelling study of gender roles and expectations, ethnic conflict in the U.S., family ties and disruptions, the call of the seafaring life, and fatalism versus the embrace of free will. Particularly interesting is O'Neill's representation of various types of vernacular speech. Overall, a classic American play that deserves an ongoing reading audience.

Anna Christie
Amazing!!!The characters were wonderfully acted out and the relationship between father and daughter was such a gripping story. ... Read more

Product Description
Proverbial language figures prominently in the works of Eugene O'Neill (1883-1953), the recipient of four Pulitzer prizes and a Nobel laureateship for literature. This volume is an index to 2,059 proverbs, proverbial expressions, and proverbial comparisons in O'Neill's 50 dramas and numerous letters, articles, diaries, and notebooks. The work includes an introductory contextual history of proverbs in O'Neill's writings, a key-word index with citations of standard proverb dictionaries, and appendices showing the distribution and frequency of proverbial texts. ... Read more

Product Description
Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since sold more than one million copies. This edition, which includes a new foreword by Harold Bloom, coincides with a new production of the play starring Brian Dennehy, which opens in Chicago in January 2002 and in New York in April.Amazon.com Review
This work is interesting enough for its history. Completed in 1940,Long Day's Journey Into Night is an autobiographical play EugeneO'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal writing about hisfamily--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurredin 1953. But since O'Neill's immediate family had died in the early 1920s,his wife allowed publication of the play in 1956. Besides the history alone,the play is fascinating in its own right. It tells of the"Tyrones"--a fictional name for what is clearly the O'Neills.Theirs is not a happy tale: The youngest son (Edmond) is sent to a sanitariumto recover from tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; hismother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by drink. In real-lifethese factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormentedindividual and a brilliant playwright. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (67)

Grim, but is a classic.
Eugene at his best. A must read for anyone interested in the theater. I suggest you read it slowly.

Boring unless you' r an actor.
Boring as hell!
Heard about this great work by O'Neill for years and finally got to read it.Maybe this makes a decent play.Maybe if you sit and watch you can
enjoy the performances and emotions, etc.
But reading is bruatally boring.
On and on and on....
Maybe I am conditiioned by TV and movies for getting to the point a
lot faster.

As Good As It Gets
I had a friend once tell me that he had just read this play and had decided it was overrated. From that point on, I never considered anything he had to say very important. He had pretty much revealed his inner workings and I saw him for the ignoramus he is. I have read this play numerous times, seen play versions with Ralph Richardson and Jack Lemmon playing James Tyrone. It's a beautiful play, a funny play, a play that works one over, and leaves one feeling totally satisfied. If you never really understood the idea of catharsis, watch or read this play. I don't see the play as having flaws, although a well-known dramaturg once told me he thought the play needed cutting. Personally, I think the play needs nothing. Cutting would turn it into another play, not the magnificent work it is. The "fat," as for as I'm concerned, is as important to it as duck fat is to a delicious confit. Still, there must be those who could like to turn it into a two-act, so the audience can get home by 10:00 to watch reruns of "The Golden Girls." If it were cut, the play would not be able to work its magic of making one feel that one has been through a long evening with the characters. These idiot editors would trim a Haiku if you let them. This play is just about as good as it gets in the modern theater we are taught to love.

Great play, not for light reading
Eugene O'Neill's classic play, "Long Day's Journey into Night," is an autobiographical work that makes you feel immense pity for his family life.It's a great read, and wonderful to analyze!Just don't think that this will be a playful romp through the theater.O'Neill tackles a lot of heavy issues in this play and it can be difficult to read.

Living death in the middle class
Starting in the 1600s, America was known as the place to make it big, where one could make a decent and happy living if one just worked hard.Whether contrasted to the chaos of Revolutionary France, the abject urban poverty of Dickens' England, the abject rural poverty of Ireland, the militarization of German society or the civil strife of Russia; America was heaven on Earth, a place where one could live the life they wanted.This image gradually wore away by the early 1900's, and this disillusionment was captured in work after work of American literature.The Great Gatsby unveiled the decay of the super-rich, The Grapes of Wrath showed the pitfalls of the rural farmer, Sinclair's "The Jungle" revealed the horrors of industrialized society, and To Kill a Mockingbird forced us to confront the horror of Jim Crowe laws.But no work so fully and so subtly attacked the everyday failings and desperation of middle class America until this short classic by Eugene O'Neill.This story has no true protagonist or antagonist.Instead, it examines one middle-class family, the Tyrones, over the course of one day.The Tyrones live in their own house, and are financially independent.The parents are middle-aged.The husband is past his prime earning years, and his wife, Mary, is addicted to snuff.One son is an alcoholic womanizer, and the other is frail and probably a nervous wreck.Nobody is in danger of starvation or eviction, but the family as a whole has problems, with depression probably being universal.Everyone has personal failings that weigh on their souls, and each day is a struggle to get through without damaging relationships with each other.Hence the title of the book, a long day's journey into night.Night probably means death here, as noone in the family is going to die soon.The journey is the time they have to spend with each other and put up with each other.This fate, this tragedy probably afflicts more people around the world than any other, and that is to have to live with your failings and those of your loved ones.This book was published at the end of O'Neill's career, and is supposed to represent his family.Regardless of its intention, this is a great book, and of the few American classics that anyone around the world can understand. ... Read more

Product Description
A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions are regarded as two of Eugene O'Neill's finest plays. Companion pieces, linked by characters and themes, they form part of a projected series of eleven interconnected plays in which the playwright intended to give a psychological and economic account of American life. Now these works, the only surviving plays in O'Neill's "Cycle," are brought together for the first time in a paperback volume. The version of More Stately Mansions presented here is O'Neill's unexpurgated text, scrupulously edited by Martha Gilman Bower, which restores the playwright's original opening scene, a crucial epilogue, and other material essential to our understanding of the play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The only two surviving parts of O'Neill's 11-play cycle, "A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed"
The two texts in this volume, "A Touch of the Poet" and "More Stately Mansions," are the fifth and sixth (and only extant) parts of what was to have become an 11-play cycle tentatively called "A Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed."Neither play was published or produced during O'Neill's lifetime, although "Poet" was staged (with Helen Hayes, Eric Portman, and Kim Stanley) in 1957 and is currently enjoying a revival in Manhattan, and an extensively abbreviated and heavily revised "Mansions" made its American debut (with Colleen Dewhurst, Ingrid Bergman, and Arthur Hill) in 1967.

Even though he left fairly complete manuscripts behind, it's probably unfair to critique O'Neill's unpublished, unstaged work. Like most other playwrights, O'Neill revised and honed his plays during readings and rehearsals, gauging the success or failure of lines and scenes as they were delivered and performed by the actors.

Even so, "A Touch of the Poet" turns out to be an unpolished gem. Its tragic hero, Cornelius Melody, is an Irish cavalry hero from the Napoleonic wars who moves to America and brings along his pretensions of being a "gentleman" in a young country with little use for the gentry. At the play's open, he is a shell of his former glory, running a tavern for the local riffraff and regaling an audience willing to endure his tales of heroism and high-living for a free round of drinks. His long-suffering wife bears the burden of his shattered dreams, and his proud daughter finds him little more than an embarrassment, rebelling against his goal of making her a finely bred lady. The dichotomy between Cornelius's delusions and his circumstances trap him in the same sort of schizophrenia that plagued John Loving, O'Neill's equally tragic hero in "Days Without End." While "Touch of a Poet" is rough around the edges, it's a strong hint of what could have been one of O'Neill's finest plays.

"More Stately Mansions" is another beast altogether. During the previous decade, O'Neill had read his fill of Freud and had undergone a series of extensive psychoanalytic treatments--and it shows here. Setting aside the impossible length of the play (which O'Neill surely would have cut had he finished it), the characters are unintentionally comical caricatures in a Freudian nightmare. Married to Sara (Cornelius's daughter from the previous play), Simon Harford is torn between his ambition to become a writer and his longing for success as an industrialist. He tries to please both his mother (poetry) and his wife (wealth); they at first compete for his attentions and then join forces to rule the roost and raise the children. Eventually, in his imagination, Simon conflates both of them and then manipulates each woman to compete with the other in a struggle for his soul and his household. "What made their petty sentimental women's world of lies and trivial greeds assume such a false importance?" he despairs, "--why did I have to meddle in their contemptible ambitions and let them involve me in a domestic squabble about the ownership of children?"

Simon's "meddling," along with the scheming complicity and mean-spirited rivalry of the two women, reduces his wife to a whore-like mistress and his mother to the Madonna-like figure he remembers from his childhood. The resulting three-way war lacks in subtlety what it boasts in absurdity, and the series of relentlessly tedious scenes pitting one bipolar/schizophrenic member of the trio against another would be impossible to stage in anything like its present form. (The first scene of Act 3, in particular, is among the worst ever conceived by O'Neill and is almost painful to read.) It's not difficult to see why O'Neill never finished this play--and it's equally clear he would be appalled to find it in print. (He even added a cover sheet to the draft exclaiming that the work was unfinished and should be destroyed on his death.) Unlike "A Touch of the Poet," this play will always be of interest only to scholars and to O'Neill fans who feel compelled to read everything he's written. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Eugene (Gladstone) O'Neill, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 8694 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
Edited by Travis Bogard ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

From Wikipedia
INCLUDES: Emperor Jones; Anna Christie; The Hairy Ape. "Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 - November 27, 1953) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism pioneered by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg into American drama, and was the first to use truly American vernacular in his speeches. His plays involve characters who inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote only one comedy (Ah, Wilderness!); all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy or personal pessimism. He was also part of the modern movement to revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays. O'Neill was very interested in the Faust theme, especially in the 1920s." -- Wikipedia.

Emperor Jones
Just finished it! This is the best play I have ever read. In fact perhaps the best piece of writing ever read. An incredible journey through the past of a black man, Brutus jones aka Emperor jones, who over comes life to become an Emperor of an island in the West Indies. Only to find he has become something he hates, predominantly a white man stealing and corrupting his own brothers. He remembers his past violently attacking it, until he is killed by his own beliefs, when he told the natives he could only be kill by a silver bullet, the natives coerced him with haunting drum beats in the night while they made the silver bullet. forcing jones to go mad, and break down to defeat. He runs in acircle right into the native silver bullet!

O'Neill Plays Stimulate The Mind With Identifiable Theme
This edition provides three original plays by Eugene O'Neill, about men at war with themselves and society.In "The Emperor Jones" Brutus Jones is a black man who has escaped the law in the United States and found refuge on an island in the West Indies.Through deceit, Jones becomes emperor over the `bush Negroes' he so despises.The play opens on an empty court with a cockney confronting the last of Jones' servants who is preparing to `run away to the hills'.When Jones awakes and is

told of the situation by Smithers, he masks his cowardess with fake bravado and is soon overcome by his guilty conscience of taxing the people and of his former life.O'Neill delivers his vision of a destitute man and his guilty conscience masterfully, using the vibrant pulse of a tom-tom to keep the continuous beat that spells Jones' doom. In `"Anna Christie"', a Swedish Sailor and his daughter are reunited only to discover that everything can not be perfect after 15 years of separation.It is the story of Chris coming to terms with the knowledge that he could have provided a better life for his daughter, Anna.At the same time, Anna must realize that she can not live in a lie, but must tell her father and boyfriend the truth and ask for their forgiveness, while also learning how to love.As in O'Neill's other plays, the characters portrayed are at the bottom of the social ladder and must also come to terms with their station in life. Finally, O'Neill tells the story of a coal stoker on a steam-ship who is confronted with the realization that he is nothing but the dregs of society.With the innocence of a child, Yank personifies himself as steel, he is the power of the steamboat and nothing can stop him.Yank thinks only of himself and those around him, not daring to imagine a world outside that of his natural habitat, the furnace.In five minutes Yank's world comes crashing down as a woman from the outside looks in and is horrified by what she sees in the men.Through possible jealousy and despise, Yank attempts to avenge himself of the girl who condescended on him.When Yank is snubbed by a group he wants to join that could bring him his coveted revenge, he is cast further into gloom and self pity.With nowhere to turn, Yank breaks into a zoo where he confronts his fears by addressing what society claims is his equal. Eventually, Yank is brought to the cruel reality that he is nothing but a `Hairy Ape'.O'Neill wrote the characters in The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, and The Hairy Ape as people at the bottom of the social ladder suffering from grief and guilty consciences because all people can identify with their trials and eventualreconciliations.Beautifully written and always stirring, these plays will never leave your mind or heart empty. ... Read more

Product Description
A Wife for a Life, The Movie Man, The Sniper, Abortion, Thirst, The Web, Warnings, Fog, Recklessness and Servitude.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

O'Neill's earliest plays (1913-1915)
This inexpensive paperback reprints nine one-act plays and one full-length play, combining material that had appeared previously in two volumes:

1) "Thirst and Other One-Act Plays" (1914), containing "The Web," "Thirst," "Recklessness," "Warnings," and "Fog"--none of which were ever truly "lost."

2) "Lost Plays of Eugene O'Neill" (1950), including "A Wife for a Life," "The Movie Man," "Abortion," "The Sniper," and "Servitude"--all of which O'Neill thought had been destroyed but which were subsequently found in the Library of Congress's Copyright Office and edited by Lawrence Gellert, whose introduction is also included in this paperback.

As dramatic pieces, these plays (written between 1913 and 1915) range in quality, from daring to interesting to downright embarrassing; only "Thirst", "Fog," and "The Sniper" were performed during O'Neill's lifetime and none are likely to grace a stage today. Nevertheless, they are fascinating for scholars and writers who might be interested in watching a young, hesitant ingenue transform into an experienced, bold playwright.

A few of the plays stand out. "Warnings" examines the events that lead to a shipwreck, while "Thirst" and "Fog" both depict shipwreck survivors struggling to stay alive in the sea; all three prefigure O'Neill's later series of plays featuring sailors. Although unbearably melodramatic,"The Web" shows O"Neill attempting to write in street dialect for the first time. "Abortion" is a rather scandalous (for its time) and unexpectedly moving depiction of the aftermath of an unwanted pregnancy.

In the volume's one full-length play, "Servitude," O'Neill experiments with dramatic structure, opening with a climactic and shocking scene--what proves to be a preview of the finale. While deeply flawed, the play turns out to be a comedy at heart, exhibiting the satirical dialogue and mature witticisms that were to make him the only American dramatist to win a Nobel Prize.

Ten strong though little-known short plays
The ten plays in this collection (A Wife for a Life, Thirst, The Web, Warnings, Fog, Recklessness, Abortion, The Movie Man, Servitude, and The Sniper) were all written in the very earliest part of O'Neill's career, from 1913 to 1915, and were (and still are) all overshadowed by the numerous masterpieces O'Neill wrote beginning in 1920 with Beyond the Horizon.In the years before he began writing, O'Neill spent a great deal of time at sea, attempted suicide, and then came down with tuberculosis and spent six months at a sanatarium, where he discovered the works of Strindberg and others and decided to become a playwright.This is all reflected heavily in these plays: one of them deals with a consumptive character, three are set at sea, and a number of them end in suicides.Also, two of them deal with marital infidelity among the wealthy, a topic that I don't think O'Neill ever returns to in his later works but which was a favorite subject of O'Neill's idol Strindberg (in particular, Recklessness relates the affair between a married woman and her servant, which should sound familiar to readers of "Miss Julie.").

All of the plays except the three-act work Servitude are only one act and under thirty pages long.Presumably, O'Neill felt a lot more comfortable at this point in his career sticking to short treatments of matters that were close to him, and this appears to have been a good idea.Pretty much all of the plays in this collection show definite signs of the powerful tragedy for which O'Neill is known, and, considering how short they are, many of them are quite moving and haunting.While O'Neill had not yet reached his full maturity at this stage, he definitely was well-enough prepared to write very good one-act plays.His later, longer and more demanding works are very justifiably more famous than these ones, but if you enjoy O'Neill's better-known plays, his earliest works provide a very good view of the development of his style and talents, and you will probably enjoy them as well. ... Read more

Product Description
A trio of plays by American writer Eugene O'Neill (1988-1953). This is the Vintage Edition V-855 put out by Random House from their The Modern Library of the World's Best Books. Biographical note at the end. "Three plays, all dealing with the misery of man, though the misery is not immediate and physical, not social, but ultimate and, as it were, metaphysical." -- Lionel Trilling. ... Read more

Product Description
The perfect gift for every dog owner.

In the early 1940s, famed playwright Eugene O'Neill wrote a moving piece of prose about his dog, Silverdene Emblem O'Neill (Blemie). In The Last Will and Testament of an Extremely Distinguished Dog, O'Neill eloquently and compassionately articulates what all dog owners feel as their pet nears theof its life.O'Neill's elegy has been lovingly restored to print and is beautifully illustrated by the award-winning quilt maker Adrienne Yorinks. Yorinks complements the text using twenty-five machine-pieced and hand-stitched quilts with color photographic transfers of dogs.The Last Will says everything that needs to be said to someone you love who is losing or has lost a beloved canine friend.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

EXCELLENT FOR THOSE THAT NEED COMFORT!
We have (well had) 4 beagles...my husband bought this book when our "little girl" became very sick.She has since passed on and he shared it with me the morning she died.It now sits on our coffee table as a memory of her and I read it when I get sad or lonely and think of her.Even though I cry every time I read it, it also makes me smile because I know she is better off and no longer suffering.The other day a dear friend our ours had to put his best friend of 11 years down and we bought him a copy.I hope it helps him as much as it helped and will continue to help us.

A must read for those who have lost or will lose their furry friends....buy extras to give as gifts!

Must read for pet owners
This book has helped me and I've given it to many others who've lost pets. Many time pet owners feel silly about sharing their grief over the loss of a pet so the tendency is to internalize the pain and hurt for fear of hear "it's only a dog." I'm here, again, to purchase a copy for my brother who today had to part company with his German Shepard of 17 years. His heart is heavy and I hope that this "...Last Will and Testament.." will help him as it helps me -- 15 years later -- grieve and rejoice in the life of a beloved family member.

Comfort for Caretakers Left Behind
This brief little book reminds us humans that we need to let our animals be animals in the end.As much as we love them, when we prolong their lives beyond their capacity to do dogly things, we are causing them to suffer.

Written from the 'viewpoint' of Blemie, a border collie, he stresses that dogs lead a simple life with simple needs and ask only from us to be loved and tenderly cared for.Part of that tender care is to allow the animal to die with dignity and to not linger with diseases and disabilities as we do with our human loved ones.

It is a sweet tribute to an obviously beloved family pet and will give a modicum of comfort to those suffering grief, remorse, and guilt from having had to 'play God' with their own furry charges.Buy it for yourself or give it as a gift.

A dog person writes for other dog people who mourn
After losing my fur covered child (a reference you just dont get if you are not a pet person), a friend sent me this book in my grief.

Here is a great author, long gone, who writes about his own lost dog, showing the amazing effect a 4 legged friend can have on any of us.

This book was a real help at a tough time, putting into words what a dog might have said, in his last will.

I bought 4, to have on hand, when friends lose dogs.
Already used one.

Highly recommended.

Touching hearts
I gave this book to a friend who lost her dog. The essay is very moving and the art is fantastic. For any dog lover. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on the conviction that only translators who write poetry themselves can properly recreate the celebrated and timeless tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the Greek Tragedy in New Translations series offers new translations that go beyond the literal meaning of the Greek in order to evoke the sense of poetry evident in the originals.Under the general editorship of William Arrowsmith, each volume includes a critical introduction, commentary on difficult passages, ample stage directions, and a glossary of the mythical names and geographical references encountered in the dialogue.

Sophocles' Oedipus the King paves the way as the first in the series to appear in paperback.In this highly-acclaimed translation of the greatest of all Greek tragedies, Stephen Berg--the well-known poet--and Diskin Clay--the distinguished classicist--combine their talents to offer the contemporary reader a dazzling version of Sophocles' timeless work.Emphasizing the intensity of the spoken language, they capture the unrelenting power of Sophoclean drama. No other English translation conveys the same terrifying emotional level, especially in the choral odes, the forceful descriptions of Jokasta's death, the blinding of Oedipus, and the final scene of desolation. Berg and Clay's translation--now available for the first time in paperback--both adheres strictly to the original meaning of the play and breathes new life into its language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Oedipus the King:Sobering
Title: Oedipus the King by Sophocles (also known as Oedipus Rex) translated by Bernard M. W. Knox

Pages: 110.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: Probably a year or so.

Days spent reading it: One afternoon while getting the oil in my car changed.

Why I read it: I read this play in high school and was interested in reading it again. I enjoy Greek plays. Especially tragedies.

Brief review:
The story of Oedipus is well known to us today. Oedipus unknowingly kills his own father, marries his own mother, and in the process becomes King of Thebes. What I found interesting in the reading the introduction to this play was that all Greek plays would be fairly well known to the audience. The playwright would be honored for skill in telling the tale and in their poetry. And in the case of Oedipus some of the greatest artistry is in the dramatic irony of Oedipus's words.

What I love about Oedipus the King is the constant struggle of Oedipus to reveal the truth of who his father's murder is (and eventually his own history) and his stubborn refusal to accept the truth when it is told plainly. The first major conversation Oedipus has with Tiresias captures this conflict perfectly. Oedipus asks Tiresias to tell what he knows. Tiresias understands who Oedipus is and what he has done. So Tiresias refuses to tell Oedipus. Oedipus promises it will be alright, just tell the truth. Tiresias tells Oedipus that Oedipus is the killer of the previous King, Laius. Oedipus rejects the truth, and rejects Tiresias. Over and over again, Oedipus wants the truth, but rejects it until all the evidence cannot be ignored any longer.

The other element of Greek tragedies that I have long enjoyed is the idea that in attempting to avoid our destiny we fulfill it. For example, Oedipus left his "home country" to avoid killing his father (who he thought was the king of Corinth, Polybus). So he wanders to Thebes and kills a man at a crossroads. Who is, of course, his own father. Classic.
I enjoyed reading Oedipus the King. It was a short read, but it has some profound moments in it. I look forward to reading some more Sophocles once I get through some other books. Oedipus continues his story in Oedipus at Colonus. And we hear about his daughter in Antigone (which I read in High School). If you enjoy tragedy, this is a must read!

Favorite quote:
"Time, which sees all things, has found you out." -Chorus

Stars: 4 of 5.

Final Word: Sobering.

Confusing Amazon Page!
This book is supposed to be the Heritage Press 1956 semi-luxe binding in slipcase with Greek and English side by side, translated by Storr.

All or most of the reviews are apparently for other editions.

More than a translation
Oedipus the King is one of the classic works of Western literature. It was originally written as a play in around 429 BC by Sophocles (~496-406 BC), a Greek philosopher and playwright. It took the Greek world by storm, and has been handed down to future generations who have also been greatly influenced by it. Most notably in modern times, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) took this work as pointing toward a deep-rooted psychosis, the Oedipus Complex.

Oedipus the King (also known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus Tyrannus) is the story of Oedipus, the king of Thebes, which is suffering under a horrific plague. Finding out that the god Apollo has laid the plague on the city until it should punish the murderer of its previous king, Oedipus pronounces a curse on the murderer and sets out to discover who the murderer was. Sadly for Oedipus, there is fate upon fate wrapped up in this mystery, and doom upon doom.

This book, is not merely a translation of Oedipus the King, instead it is an "acting version," created by the Stratford Shakespearian Festival Company of Canada for High School level students. The book begins with an introduction to Sophocles and Greek theatre, and after the play are copious notes, critical excerpts and questions for discussion. The play itself was written so that a young reader, with no background understanding of Greek theatre or culture will understand it.

Overall, I found this to be a great book. I enjoyed the information about the play a lot, and believe that it will be very helpful to any reader. But, foremost, I enjoyed the play itself. The story is powerful, and quite enthralling. I have never seen this play acted out, but do think that this translation would make it excellent. I loved this book, and highly recommend it!

Misleading
Warning to all those who are reading this for a school assignment: you may think that an "enriched classic" is simply the text with commentary also included. Not so, with this book. They shouldn't call it an "enriched classic". They should call it "dumbed down for lazy readers."

Oedipus review
Oedipus was a weird book to reab, because the plot was all twisted. The characters in the book are nasty. Oedipus kills his father and has two kids with his mother..... ... Read more