What do you think?
Rate this book
Four Plays By Eugene O'Neill
Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and the first American dramatist to receive a Nobel Prize, Eugene O'Neill filled his plays with rich characterization and innovative language, taking the outcasts and renegades of society and depicting their Olympian struggles with themselves-and with destiny.
329 pages, Other Format
First published February 1, 1998
38 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
Eugene O'Neill
520 books1,231 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 13, 2023
Ranking goes
Anna christie
The emperor jones (delightful)
Beyond the horizon
The hairy ape
Probably a bit biased bc i also watched the adaption with paul robeson in the emperor jones and he was very good
Anna christie
The emperor jones (delightful)
Beyond the horizon
The hairy ape
Probably a bit biased bc i also watched the adaption with paul robeson in the emperor jones and he was very good
February 12, 2008
the emperor jones is all kinds of fucked up. the story is basically about an african-american who has set himself up as emperor of a caribbean island, but the black savage inhabitants of the island are now rebelling, and he must escape through the jungle. jones' dialogue is written in that typical "i sho' is hungee" dialect, yet the play somehow seems to have something to say about what w.e.b. dubois called double consciousness. extremely problematic and therefore extremely interesting.
June 19, 2025
I think I bought this around the time I saw a performance of A Long Day's Journey into the Night. Well, that play was excellent, but these? Not so much. There is a bit of symbolism to The Hairy Ape that I appreciate. I suppose an interesting performance can be done of Anna Christie. But I am glad to be done with the collection. Not great reading.
July 26, 2020
** 3.5 stars **
This collection of four plays by Eugene O'Neill contains two Pulitzer Prize-winning family dramas (Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie) and two more experimental/symbolic plays that are studies of a single character (The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape). All four were originally produced between 1920 and 1922.
Beyond the Horizon is the story of two brothers who differ from one another in their fundamental nature. One is a good worker and content with his lot in life to work on the family farm, while the other is a restless dreamer who yearns to travel the world and find himself. Their love for the same woman tears them apart in a geographical sense but also upends their personal goals, ambitions, and sense of themselves.
Anna Christie also finds two men at odds over the title character, except this time it is Anna's father and her would-be lover Mat. This play is about accepting the decisions one has made in life (as well as the decisions other people have made) and putting aside judgment in order to embrace love and what the future holds.
The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape are both character studies of the title male figure. Brutus Jones has become emperor of a Caribbean kingdom through his cunning, but as the play opens, he sees that his days are numbered and plots his escape. He has built up a powerful mythology about himself to the native people (including the notion that he can only be killed by a silver bullet), but as he attempts to leave the island by crossing the forest at night, he is haunted by visions of his past and is revealed to be a man who lives in fear. Yank from The Hairy Ape is a coal-stoker on a ship who is well regarded by the men with whom he works as a natural leader. His sense of himself is upended one day when an upper-class woman named Mildred comes down to observe the ship's boiler room and is so frightened by Yank's gruff manner and appearance that she calls him a filthy beast and faints. Yank spends the remainder of the play brooding over what happened, plotting his revenge against Mildred, and attempting to figure out where he belongs in a world where he is viewed as a hairy ape.
The two family dramas do a good job of building dramatic tension between scenes and acts of the play. I found the romances a bit unbelievable, but the portrayal of the father-daughter relationship in both plays was quite touching. The two more experimental plays I feel sure pack a bigger punch seeing them performed on stage due to all of the intended effects that are mentioned in O'Neill's stage directions, but even just reading them here, they present intriguing single character studies (although in terms of language, they haven't held up particularly well over time). I would recommend this collection if you have an interest in American drama, especially since two of these plays were Pulitzer Prize winners and O'Neill was the first American dramatist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (which he won in 1936).
This collection of four plays by Eugene O'Neill contains two Pulitzer Prize-winning family dramas (Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie) and two more experimental/symbolic plays that are studies of a single character (The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape). All four were originally produced between 1920 and 1922.
Beyond the Horizon is the story of two brothers who differ from one another in their fundamental nature. One is a good worker and content with his lot in life to work on the family farm, while the other is a restless dreamer who yearns to travel the world and find himself. Their love for the same woman tears them apart in a geographical sense but also upends their personal goals, ambitions, and sense of themselves.
Anna Christie also finds two men at odds over the title character, except this time it is Anna's father and her would-be lover Mat. This play is about accepting the decisions one has made in life (as well as the decisions other people have made) and putting aside judgment in order to embrace love and what the future holds.
The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape are both character studies of the title male figure. Brutus Jones has become emperor of a Caribbean kingdom through his cunning, but as the play opens, he sees that his days are numbered and plots his escape. He has built up a powerful mythology about himself to the native people (including the notion that he can only be killed by a silver bullet), but as he attempts to leave the island by crossing the forest at night, he is haunted by visions of his past and is revealed to be a man who lives in fear. Yank from The Hairy Ape is a coal-stoker on a ship who is well regarded by the men with whom he works as a natural leader. His sense of himself is upended one day when an upper-class woman named Mildred comes down to observe the ship's boiler room and is so frightened by Yank's gruff manner and appearance that she calls him a filthy beast and faints. Yank spends the remainder of the play brooding over what happened, plotting his revenge against Mildred, and attempting to figure out where he belongs in a world where he is viewed as a hairy ape.
The two family dramas do a good job of building dramatic tension between scenes and acts of the play. I found the romances a bit unbelievable, but the portrayal of the father-daughter relationship in both plays was quite touching. The two more experimental plays I feel sure pack a bigger punch seeing them performed on stage due to all of the intended effects that are mentioned in O'Neill's stage directions, but even just reading them here, they present intriguing single character studies (although in terms of language, they haven't held up particularly well over time). I would recommend this collection if you have an interest in American drama, especially since two of these plays were Pulitzer Prize winners and O'Neill was the first American dramatist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (which he won in 1936).
March 5, 2011
Beyond the Horizon, 4 stars
Albeit sad, I didn't find this play to be as dark and bleak as I had expected.
Indeed there is a love triangle; however, that aspect of the play didn't strike me as the most central.
For me, the play was more about choices and how one deals with and reacts to decisions once they've been made. Does one keep moving forward? Does one become embittered? Does one despise the one who hurt him?
What moved (and surprised) me most was the tenderness the brothers displayed toward each other. Their forgiveness, their protectiveness, and their honesty in spite of their devastating choices and differences in personality and manner make the play hopeful. This unbroken bond is a reminder that true, deep-seated love is hard to break, even if life takes an unexpected turn or dreams seem to be crushed.
The Emperor Jones, 3 stars
Anna Christie, 3.5 stars
The Hairy Ape, 3 stars
(As a side note, this particular four-work volume has several typographical errors.)
Albeit sad, I didn't find this play to be as dark and bleak as I had expected.
Indeed there is a love triangle; however, that aspect of the play didn't strike me as the most central.
For me, the play was more about choices and how one deals with and reacts to decisions once they've been made. Does one keep moving forward? Does one become embittered? Does one despise the one who hurt him?
What moved (and surprised) me most was the tenderness the brothers displayed toward each other. Their forgiveness, their protectiveness, and their honesty in spite of their devastating choices and differences in personality and manner make the play hopeful. This unbroken bond is a reminder that true, deep-seated love is hard to break, even if life takes an unexpected turn or dreams seem to be crushed.
The Emperor Jones, 3 stars
Anna Christie, 3.5 stars
The Hairy Ape, 3 stars
(As a side note, this particular four-work volume has several typographical errors.)
May 12, 2013
یوجین اونیل (1953-1888) نمایش نامه نویس آمریکایی برنده ی نوبل، متاثر از تیاتر واقع گرای چخوف و هنریک ایبسن بود. او که سال ها روی کشتی کار کرده بود، در اغلب آثار اولیه اش به زندگی ملاحان و سفرهای دریایی پرداخت. آخرین نمایش نامه های اونیل، بهترین آنها هستند که به نوعی تراژدی شخصیت های نومید مشهور اند.
February 5, 2012
Read *The Emperor Jones* and *The Hairy Ape*. Insane amounts of dialect -- more than Twain? Is that possible? Interesting plays, and I can see why O'Neill was hailed as the first great American playwright, but... to me, they simply aren't *entertaining* because of how moralizing they try to be.
April 20, 2016
god stuff, oneill is a great playwrite who puts together tense situations and drives them with good basic dialogue
these are some of his early plays and creative at some points and repetitive at others
but nice overall
these are some of his early plays and creative at some points and repetitive at others
but nice overall
August 16, 2007
Would give it a higher rating, but O'Neill's always better on stage, in my opinion.
March 26, 2008
have most of his plays. great playwrite.
October 8, 2017
Eh
Early works that show it. Rough and difficult to read, a few great lines, but overall not worth the effort.
Early works that show it. Rough and difficult to read, a few great lines, but overall not worth the effort.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews