Long Day's Journey into Night | 
 enlarge | Author: Eugene O'neill
Creator: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 4223
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0300093055
Dewey Decimal Number: 812.52
EAN: 9780300093056
ASIN: 0300093055
Publication Date: March 1, 2002
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Condition: Never used.
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Amazon.com
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
 Great play, not for light reading September 1, 2007
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 July 18, 2007
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.
NO EXIT June 24, 2007
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 June 14, 2007
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 May 18, 2007
Simply said, the most beautiful American play of all time.
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