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Long Day's Journey into Night: Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene)

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NO EXIT
The Great American Drama of the 20th Century
American literature at its best
Intensity In Addiction
The ultimate family portrait

Long Day's Journey into Night: Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene)
Eugene O'Neill
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300094108

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This work is interesting enough for its history. Completed in 1940, Long Day's Journey Into Night is an autobiographical play Eugene O'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal writing about his family--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurred in 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 sanitarium to recover from tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; his mother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by drink. In real-life these factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormented individual and a brilliant playwright.

Book 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.

Customer Reviews:

NO EXIT.......2007-06-24

I have written reviews of some of Eugene O'Neill's other plays elsewhere in this space. I have noted there that Iceman Cometh is my favorite for a variety of reasons, some of them political. Journey, however, may be O'Neill best play and not only because it is somewhat autobiographical. The trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional family that is ultimately clueless about solutions to what ails each of the four characters (father, mother and two very unlike sons)is very much the stuff of modern drama. The intervention of the gods would seem out of place here.

In O'Neill hands the tensions, misunderstandings and illusions presented are recognizable to today's audiences, even those who may themselves be troubled about finding solutions to some very disturbing problems. Althought this is a difficult play to read (and more difficult to watch performed)virtually everyone I know who has read and/or watch it has survived to the end. And was glad of it. That will tell as much as anything else that I could add that we are dealing with a master work of American literature. Enough said.

The Great American Drama of the 20th Century.......2007-06-14

I recently re-read "Long Day's Journey into Night" on a vacation flight and was surprised to find how well it stood up in my second reading.

The first time I read the play was when I was in my late teens and I could easily relate to melancholia of Edmund.

With age and time, I am less melancholic and perhaps less Edmund-like but "Long Day's Journey into Night" is a wonderful play. The most personal (autobiographical) of O'Neill's work: it also is his most universal work.

On every page, the American Dream/nightmare comes through with a brilliance perhaps not equaled elsewhere.

If a professional or quality amateur production of this work is not readily available to you, I highly recommend you pick up a copy. Enjoy!

American literature at its best.......2007-05-18

Simply said, the most beautiful American play of all time.

Intensity In Addiction.......2007-03-29

O'Neill's play "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is often considered his best work. The book is highly autobiographical and depicts a highly dysfunctional family where the men are all alcoholics and the mother is a morphine addict. The dialogue is truly intense and the stage direction is extremely relevant to the proper mood and attitude of the dialogue.

The most interesting thing about the play is the stigma that is attached to the use of drugs, particularly in comparison to the use of alcohol. Alcohol use and alcoholism is `socially acceptable' whereas the use of narcotics is relegated to prostitutes and others of low social standing. The intensity of the dialogue rests in its ability to illustrate the torment of the family as it tries to deal with the drug addiction of the mother and the horror of the hold it has on her, while all the time, the alcoholism is just taken as routine. The father often comments about how he never "missed a performance" because of his alcohol use and therefore, it was not a problem. But in fact, it is a tremendous problem which they cannot shake, even though they are aware that it is consuming them.

Perhaps most interesting of all is that the play was published posthumously. O'Neill seems to have been able to write it and face the terror of the dysfunctionality in 1940, but he would not allow publication of the play until he was no longer alive. While it was within his grasp to write about the situation, it was not within him to allow the world to see it within his time.

The foreword by Harold Bloom is not surprisingly pedantic and overly academic. Bloom often takes the position that he knows what is appropriate, right and underlying about a written piece, but never assumes that any other person really properly understands what it is all about. He seems to see it as his job to inform others what they do not know; despite other people's potentially valid and illuminating interpretations. The reader may wish to completely skip the forward and go right to the words of O'Neill and make their own interpretation. Truly a marvel of a play, there is no person who would not gain from the reading of this brilliant work of the master playwright of his time.

The ultimate family portrait.......2007-02-08

If one is fortified for a dreary tale, this one is one of the best.

On a nuts and bolts level, it has a credible cast of characters, the plot is self-consistent even as the past is revised by revelations, the story is more than engaging, and the general lessons on humanity can be applied to each of our lives.

I found it not so overwhelmingly dreary. The characters have affection for each other, and express dreams and can recall successes as well as face their current, probably insurmountable problems.

The addition of the background: having an autobiographical basis, published post-humously, from one of the leading American playwrights of his day, should make it required reading for a literate citizen. Frankly, I'm embarrassed I didn't read it until this year, when I'm nearly 50.

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