|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Book Description
The Father; A Dream Play; Miss Julie; The Ghost Sonata; The Dance of Death `Ibsen can sit serenely in his Doll's House,' Sean O'Casey remarked, `while Strindberg is battling with his heaven and his hell.' Strindberg was one of the most extreme, and ultimately the most influential theatrical innovators of the late nineteenth century. The five plays translated here are those on which Strindberg's international reputation as a dramatist principally rests and this edition embraces his crucial transition from Naturalism to Modernism, from his two finest achievements as a psychological realist, The Father and Miss Julie, to the three plays in which he redefined the possibilities of European drama following his return to the theatre in 1898. Michael Robinson's highly performable translations are based on the authoritative texts of the new edition of Strindberg's collected works in Sweden and include the Preface to Miss Julie, Strindberg's manifesto of theatrical naturalism. Introduction Textual Note Bibliography Chronology Explanatory Notes
About the Author
Michael Robinson is Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of East Anglia.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
sexual passion and social position,
By I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews
This review is from: Miss Julie and Other Plays (Paperback)
I don't care that much for Strindberg's other plays, but I love "Miss Julie." This is one of my favorite plays, a very gripping and powerful drama about a male servant and his employer's spoiled daughter who plays games with him. She's all too aware of her superiority over him in this wealthy household and she loves to rub it in his face. However, her upper-class boredom leads her to spend time with the servant chatting away and killing time, and she doesn't realize that by interacting with him in such a casual and personal way, she's bringing herself more and more down to his social level. She feels trapped in her idle life of money and privilege, and he feels trapped in his badly paid lowly job. But she envies his freedom. Each has the exact opposite of what the other has, and each wants what the other has. Also, there is one other ingredient--they are both attracted to each other in this conflict between sexual passion and social position. This play was coldly received when it first came out in 1888 for its startling modernity. The antagonistic love-hate relationship it shows between the man and woman is refreshingly modern even today.David Rehak
5.0 out of 5 stars
preferable for annotations, but a few minor problems,
By 869516255 (Plover, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Miss Julie and Other Plays (Paperback)
I read The Father and the first part of Miss Julie in the University of California translation and then the rest of the plays in this one, and as far as I can tell neither seems more awkward than the other--but the Oxford translation holds the major advantage in that it contains copious notes on the many obscure literary and sociocultural references throughout the plays. I noticed that in at least some sections in the UC version the obscurities are ironed out (the English translation for "biblia pauperum" is incorporated into the text, and in The Father a reference to a book by an 18th century author unknown outside Sweden, unnecessary to the action, becomes "a book"), but there are many other cases where it is simply passed over without a mention. Granted, if you are buying a copy or multiple copies of the plays in order to perform them, it is unlikely that the references will be useful, but for those interested in a critical reading of them, the Oxford edition will undoubtedly be favorable. It is also mentioned that this edition draws off of the most recent versions of the original works being published as a set in Sweden, but since I have no knowledge of Swedish and there are no examples in either edition of the translation in progress, I can't really comment on that. A minor point with the Oxford edition is that it seems very sloppily assembled at times, which is a bit surprising given the usual quality level in this series. For instance, the page-formatting was done inaccurately, so that whenever a parenthesis for a stage direction falls at the end of a line, it is cut off--and this occurs all throughout the book, not a crucial problem by any means, but just an unsettling indication of carelessness. There are also several spelling errors in the plays, and a couple misquotations in the annotations. Once again, these are not crucial flaws, but a little sloppiness can make the reader wonder what else was neglected which may have slipped past his awareness. Overall, despite the flaws, this is the edition of Strindberg's major plays to have for a reader who is interested in not only performing but also studying the works. (Edit, 2/11/04: I've just discovered that the parenthesis usage is standard practice for texts of plays in Britain, so my comments about that issue can be disregarded.)
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
sexual passion and social position,
By I ain't no porn writer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Miss Julie and Other Plays (Paperback)
I don't care that much for Strindberg's other plays, but I love "Miss Julie." This is one of my favorite plays, a very gripping and powerful drama about a male servant and his employer's spoiled daughter who plays games with him. She's all too aware of her superiority over him in this wealthy household and she loves to rub it in his face. However, her upper-class boredom leads her to spend time with the servant chatting away and killing time, and she doesn't realize that by interacting with him in such a casual and personal way, she's bringing herself more and more down to his social level. She feels trapped in her idle life of money and privilege, and he feels trapped in his badly paid lowly job. But she envies his freedom. Each has the exact opposite of what the other has, and each wants what the other has. Also, there is one other ingredient--they are both attracted to each other in this conflict between sexual passion and social position. This play was coldly received when it first came out in 1888 for its startling modernity. The antagonistic love-hate relationship it shows between the man and woman is refreshingly modern even today.David Rehak
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible translation!,
By Meg - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This collection of plays by Strindberg is a horrible translation with a worse editing job. Stage directions are written in the exact same style as the dialogue and are very confusing to pick out and understand. Plays are not individually labeled and have no separation between them. The only way to know what play you are reading is to seach by other means. Really and truely a bad book of plays for the editing job. Do not buy this book if you can help it.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Do not waste your money on this edition,
By Kelly Dyer - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This edition is truly awful. The first page of the book says that it was completely translated and edited by a computer without any human intervention, and it shows. It is riddled with spelling errors, has not been copy edited; the mistakes that were printed are so bad that it is difficult to read the plays. In addition, the actual translation is so bad that important points are lost.In regards to the overall organization, there is no separation between the plays. The first line of the second play immediately follows the last line of the first, with no acknowledgement that they are separate works. This version of the play may be inexpensive, but you will have to spend more money in the end to buy a different (better) edition of the plays. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theatre > History & Criticism
- Books > Entertainment > Performing Arts > Theatre > History & Criticism
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Continental European
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > History
- Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Scandinavian
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Linguistics
- Books > New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > World Literature > European
- Books > Reference > Words & Language > Linguistics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
