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Nine Plays by Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill chose the nine full-length plays for this volume as representative of his work. The settings range from a native-ruled island in the West Indies to a university town in New England, but the theme is universal--the eternal tragedy of man caught in passionate conflict between aspiration and frustration. O'Neill wrote that "The playwright today must dig at the roots of the sickness of today as he feels it--the death of the old God and the failure of science and materialism to give any satisfying new one..." His plays explore man's continuing need to give the conflict of his life some meaning beyond itself, to find some justification for the importance which it has for him; the plays themselves are efforts to achieve a self-justifying dignity and grandeur.
[from the 1959 edition dust jacket.]
[from the 1959 edition dust jacket.]
867 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
103 people want to read
About the author
Eugene O'Neill
520 books1,229 followersAmerican playwright Eugene Gladstone O'Neill authored
Mourning Becomes Electra
in 1931 among his works; he won the Nobel Prize of 1936 for literature, and people awarded him his fourth Pulitzer Prize for
Long Day's Journey into Night
, produced in 1956.
He won his Nobel Prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy." More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg pioneered to Americans and first used true American vernacular in his speeches.
His plays involve characters, who, engaging in depraved behavior, inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness! , his only comedy: all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
He won his Nobel Prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy." More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg pioneered to Americans and first used true American vernacular in his speeches.
His plays involve characters, who, engaging in depraved behavior, inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness! , his only comedy: all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 5, 2014
Eugene O'Neill was the greatest playwright in American history. His plays are dark, moody, tragic, but also wildly romantic and full of lyrical descriptions of nature. He writes about tough, urban hoodlums and Roman emperors with equal power and conviction. Don't miss the collected plays of this amazing author!
THE EMPEROR JONES -- FIVE STARS
Easily the most entertaining of O'Neill's short plays. Brutus Jones is the first true black hero in American literature. His downfall is chilling but the breakneck pace of the action never falters. Must read!
ALL GOD'S CHILLUN GOT WINGS -- TWO STARS
The worst play of the nine included here. O'Neill was decades ahead of his time in writing sympathetic African American characters. But this melodrama of a mixed marriage is a mess! Look for THE DREAMY KID if you can find it -- a much better, and shorter play of black life in the big cities 100 years ago.
THE HAIRY APE -- FIVE STARS
Yank is a brute and a bruiser, not a charming rogue like Brutus Jones. But nevertheless, this short play packs a punch. Spiritual issues mix with social criticism for an unforgettable "comedy of ancient and modern life" that ends with gruesome death. The Hairy Ape belongs!
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS -- FIVE STARS
Though he was a proud Irish Catholic, O'Neill had a natural affinity for the Puritans and aboriginal farmers of New England. This wrenching tragedy of an unwanted baby and a fallen woman is as terrifying and shattering as anything written by the ancient Greeks. Abbie is hands down O'Neill's sexiest heroine. And Eben is no slouch either!
MARCO MILLIONS -- TWO STARS
While it purports to be a study of Marco Polo, the legendary Venetian explorer and writer, this is mostly a dated satire on American greed and the salesman culture. O'Neill scores some good points, but there are also a lot of cheap shots.
LAZARUS LAUGHED -- FOUR STARS
If you loved ROME and I CLAUDIUS you don't want to miss this one! O'Neill does an amazing job bringing Tiberius and Caligula to life, and capturing the decadent cruelty of imperial Rome. Just don't expect Lazarus' spiritual message to make much sense. "Let your heart climb on laughter to a star." Thanks, L-man!
THE GREAT GOD BROWN -- FOUR STARS
Another one of O'Neill's cheap-shot plays, where the go-getting businessman is crucified over and over. But this time it's different. The brother-battle between Dion Anthony and Billy Brown is so intense it's practically feverish -- and the shock-ending is a real twist. Who was that masked man?
STRANGE INTERLUDE -- THREE STARS
O'Neill hates women. O'Neill tries to understand women. O'Neill experiments with characters who speak to the audience in long, long asides. And it's a long, long play. Bring back the Emperor Jones!
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA -- TWO STARS
O'Neill still hates women. But now he also wants to write about the American Civil War. There's no insight at all into the causes of the war, no African American characters, no sense of what was gained or lost by the pain and suffering of the soldiers. Plenty of cheap shots at New England and the Puritans, and no understanding of what they achieved or how they became involved in fighting a war to make men free. Bring back Abbie and Eben!
THE EMPEROR JONES -- FIVE STARS
Easily the most entertaining of O'Neill's short plays. Brutus Jones is the first true black hero in American literature. His downfall is chilling but the breakneck pace of the action never falters. Must read!
ALL GOD'S CHILLUN GOT WINGS -- TWO STARS
The worst play of the nine included here. O'Neill was decades ahead of his time in writing sympathetic African American characters. But this melodrama of a mixed marriage is a mess! Look for THE DREAMY KID if you can find it -- a much better, and shorter play of black life in the big cities 100 years ago.
THE HAIRY APE -- FIVE STARS
Yank is a brute and a bruiser, not a charming rogue like Brutus Jones. But nevertheless, this short play packs a punch. Spiritual issues mix with social criticism for an unforgettable "comedy of ancient and modern life" that ends with gruesome death. The Hairy Ape belongs!
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS -- FIVE STARS
Though he was a proud Irish Catholic, O'Neill had a natural affinity for the Puritans and aboriginal farmers of New England. This wrenching tragedy of an unwanted baby and a fallen woman is as terrifying and shattering as anything written by the ancient Greeks. Abbie is hands down O'Neill's sexiest heroine. And Eben is no slouch either!
MARCO MILLIONS -- TWO STARS
While it purports to be a study of Marco Polo, the legendary Venetian explorer and writer, this is mostly a dated satire on American greed and the salesman culture. O'Neill scores some good points, but there are also a lot of cheap shots.
LAZARUS LAUGHED -- FOUR STARS
If you loved ROME and I CLAUDIUS you don't want to miss this one! O'Neill does an amazing job bringing Tiberius and Caligula to life, and capturing the decadent cruelty of imperial Rome. Just don't expect Lazarus' spiritual message to make much sense. "Let your heart climb on laughter to a star." Thanks, L-man!
THE GREAT GOD BROWN -- FOUR STARS
Another one of O'Neill's cheap-shot plays, where the go-getting businessman is crucified over and over. But this time it's different. The brother-battle between Dion Anthony and Billy Brown is so intense it's practically feverish -- and the shock-ending is a real twist. Who was that masked man?
STRANGE INTERLUDE -- THREE STARS
O'Neill hates women. O'Neill tries to understand women. O'Neill experiments with characters who speak to the audience in long, long asides. And it's a long, long play. Bring back the Emperor Jones!
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA -- TWO STARS
O'Neill still hates women. But now he also wants to write about the American Civil War. There's no insight at all into the causes of the war, no African American characters, no sense of what was gained or lost by the pain and suffering of the soldiers. Plenty of cheap shots at New England and the Puritans, and no understanding of what they achieved or how they became involved in fighting a war to make men free. Bring back Abbie and Eben!
March 16, 2016
O’Neill was writing with modernity in full swing, and you can see that in the bleakness of his work. The realization that industrialization was sterile, the humanistic value that man would evolve into greatness as a species and as individuals had proven hollow, and the loss of identity in the swirling masses of urbanization all bleed into the disjointed works of the time. O’Neill was a Yankee, too, from New York City, no less, and that sucked. As is the case with many of his contemporaries, a sense of hopelessness, madness, and despair imbues his work, and all the plays herein end sadly, though not tragically in the theatrical sense. The characters cannot relate to themselves or others, and an undercurrent of insanity, incest, and rage swirls throughout. Still, for all its hideousness, the modernist works are important, in small doses, as they point out the flaws of the time we should strive to avoid in our time. I like them for this reason and others. The plays, as I mentioned, have a tragic tone though they don’t quite reach full-on tragedy. O’Neill has a good sense of characterization, a positive trait for a playwright. He takes the time to set scenes well, which allows the reader to better envision what is going on and experience the drama. Overall, O’Neill, in my opinion, is not as good as Tennessee Williams, but worth reading.
This book includes, of course, nine plays:
The Emperor Jones is named for the main character, a black man who has escaped from jail and made himself an emperor in a backwater Caribbean Island. It relies heavily on flashback and mixes expressionism and realism. All the characters seem warped in some fashion. Emperor Jones’ natives rebel, and he seeks to escape through the jungle. O’Neill’s use of ghostly imagery and the haunting drums throughout add greatly to the atmosphere of the play.
The Hairy Ape is full of disillusionment and the evils of the capitalist system, although it does not directly promote socialism. A lower class man is compared to a “filthy beast,” sparking an identity crisis and rage against the machine that ends with the man being crushed to death while trying to free an ape at the zoo for whom he empathizes as a trapped beast put on spectacle for the rich and idle.
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a psychotic play of miscegenation wherein the white wife of a black lawyer destroys both their lives. Prejudice and the stink of the ghetto provide a pungent backdrop for this drama, which initially seems happy.
Desire Under the Elms deals with a family with a deceased mother and domineering father, with whom the sons struggle for power and/or freedom. Father and son also vie for the same woman, who seduces them both. This is probably my favourite play in the book, though I also really like Mourning Becomes Electra, too. They have some elements in common such as bastard children and the concepts of incest and mothers dominating their sons.
Marco Millions is a retelling or imagining of Marco Polo’s journey to the Orient. There is some interaction between religious values, but the plot focuses upon the love of Kublai Khan’s granddaughter for Marco and his obliviousness to this fact. This is not full-blown comedy, but it is the most comedic of the plays in this collection.
The Great God Brown follows two sons of two architects who are both friends and competitors in love and work. This play uses masks for some characters to hid identity and/or represent vice, which I like because it adds a mystique to an otherwise too-urban play. Betrayal and deceit are the order of the day, tinged with a good dose of dissipation. Nice work.
Lazarus Laughed involves over a hundred actors in a masked chorus following Lazarus of Bethany after Jesus Christ raised him from the dead. There is some philosophic and theological musing in the play, which is superficially a Greek tragedy. Lazarus claims there is no death, but only God’s eternal laughter. Indeed, the more he laughs, the younger and stronger he becomes, although his wife continues to age and weaken. Lazarus is eventually burnt at the stake by the Roman Emperor Tiberius. I didn’t get this play, and I tried to.
Strange Interlude follows the follows the love life of a woman, who repeatedly makes bad choices. She cuckolds her husband, and has multiple men vying for her. The characters have soliloquies in which they speak their thoughts aloud to the audience as well as conventional dialogue with other characters on stage. The play ends with her marrying the older friend of her father as if this is a happy ending, though it fails to be such.
Mourning Becomes Electra is generally considered to be O’Neills magnus opus and for good reason. First of all, it is a grand title. It is a loose retelling of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, will all its murder, adultery, incest, and revenge. It is not quite as good as the original, but it is well done. It is a cycle of three plays following the family of a Civil War hero (or villain, if you’re from the South) that is full of wicked women and weak men whose actions serve to alienate themselves from one another. Suicide, death, and isolation are key themes.
I recommend this book or O’Neill’s work, generally, to all who like the brutal fruit of modernity in their literature. It is a style to which we all can relate, if only to be glad we aren’t devastated by it. The playwright’s word choice is nice, his descriptions first-rate, and his clever sense of alienation keen. Those liking to plays or literature should read at least some of his works. This collection of nine plays is great because it includes his better known and (presumably) best work, and it is in a manageable chunk that is not overwhelming as I suspect a complete collection would be.
This book includes, of course, nine plays:
The Emperor Jones is named for the main character, a black man who has escaped from jail and made himself an emperor in a backwater Caribbean Island. It relies heavily on flashback and mixes expressionism and realism. All the characters seem warped in some fashion. Emperor Jones’ natives rebel, and he seeks to escape through the jungle. O’Neill’s use of ghostly imagery and the haunting drums throughout add greatly to the atmosphere of the play.
The Hairy Ape is full of disillusionment and the evils of the capitalist system, although it does not directly promote socialism. A lower class man is compared to a “filthy beast,” sparking an identity crisis and rage against the machine that ends with the man being crushed to death while trying to free an ape at the zoo for whom he empathizes as a trapped beast put on spectacle for the rich and idle.
All God’s Chillun Got Wings is a psychotic play of miscegenation wherein the white wife of a black lawyer destroys both their lives. Prejudice and the stink of the ghetto provide a pungent backdrop for this drama, which initially seems happy.
Desire Under the Elms deals with a family with a deceased mother and domineering father, with whom the sons struggle for power and/or freedom. Father and son also vie for the same woman, who seduces them both. This is probably my favourite play in the book, though I also really like Mourning Becomes Electra, too. They have some elements in common such as bastard children and the concepts of incest and mothers dominating their sons.
Marco Millions is a retelling or imagining of Marco Polo’s journey to the Orient. There is some interaction between religious values, but the plot focuses upon the love of Kublai Khan’s granddaughter for Marco and his obliviousness to this fact. This is not full-blown comedy, but it is the most comedic of the plays in this collection.
The Great God Brown follows two sons of two architects who are both friends and competitors in love and work. This play uses masks for some characters to hid identity and/or represent vice, which I like because it adds a mystique to an otherwise too-urban play. Betrayal and deceit are the order of the day, tinged with a good dose of dissipation. Nice work.
Lazarus Laughed involves over a hundred actors in a masked chorus following Lazarus of Bethany after Jesus Christ raised him from the dead. There is some philosophic and theological musing in the play, which is superficially a Greek tragedy. Lazarus claims there is no death, but only God’s eternal laughter. Indeed, the more he laughs, the younger and stronger he becomes, although his wife continues to age and weaken. Lazarus is eventually burnt at the stake by the Roman Emperor Tiberius. I didn’t get this play, and I tried to.
Strange Interlude follows the follows the love life of a woman, who repeatedly makes bad choices. She cuckolds her husband, and has multiple men vying for her. The characters have soliloquies in which they speak their thoughts aloud to the audience as well as conventional dialogue with other characters on stage. The play ends with her marrying the older friend of her father as if this is a happy ending, though it fails to be such.
Mourning Becomes Electra is generally considered to be O’Neills magnus opus and for good reason. First of all, it is a grand title. It is a loose retelling of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, will all its murder, adultery, incest, and revenge. It is not quite as good as the original, but it is well done. It is a cycle of three plays following the family of a Civil War hero (or villain, if you’re from the South) that is full of wicked women and weak men whose actions serve to alienate themselves from one another. Suicide, death, and isolation are key themes.
I recommend this book or O’Neill’s work, generally, to all who like the brutal fruit of modernity in their literature. It is a style to which we all can relate, if only to be glad we aren’t devastated by it. The playwright’s word choice is nice, his descriptions first-rate, and his clever sense of alienation keen. Those liking to plays or literature should read at least some of his works. This collection of nine plays is great because it includes his better known and (presumably) best work, and it is in a manageable chunk that is not overwhelming as I suspect a complete collection would be.
August 2, 2007
This is not a good copy of O'neill's plays. It;s got the best but it's very hard to read. The type is too small and layout is bad. I suspect there are much better volumes out there. I got this at a used book store for a few bucks so I don't mind much.
July 5, 2014
One of my favorite play writes.
July 9, 2017
I read the plays straight through, as I would read a novel. I don't know if that's the best way, but I couldn't put him down. Each time I thought I knew where he was going, he surprised me and took it to another level. It's not that he's got clever plot twists, it's that he made me hope for the characters, and he shows what they feel in such an intimate and truthful way. Reading him was a memorable experience.
September 30, 2022
9 plays by the playwright showing his development in characters, plot and interpersonal conflict within each play. Perhaps an originator of the grim dark genre
to-read-off-my-shelf
March 9, 2015Bought this to use for my college senior project. This plan clearly worked flawlessly.
December 12, 2009
Reread The Emperor Jones. Read All God's Chillun' Got Wings.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews