( One of the greatest classics of modern theater the fa...)
One of the greatest classics of modern theater the fateful drama of a willful young aristocrat's seduction of her father's valet during a Midsummer's Eve celebration. Inspired by the new ideas of naturalism and psychology that swept Europe in the late 19th century, the play is reprinted here complete with Strindberg's critical preface.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486272818/?tag=2022091-20
(This play in three acts is one of the most noted by the g...)
This play in three acts is one of the most noted by the great Norwegian dramatist, and the translation by Edith and Warner Oland is generally considered the best. Warner Oland is remembered by millions of movie fans as the famous Charlie Chan, but he was also a dis-tinguished linguist and translator of Scandinavian literature, especially of works by Au-gust Strindberg. The powerful cover was designed by Karl Eldh after a statue of Strindberg himself. The Father is another classic of world literature which Mr. Edmund Brown put together in his famous series known as IPL, International Pocket Library.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0828314349/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1532704909/?tag=2022091-20
(This edition embraces Strindberg's crucial transition fro...)
This edition embraces Strindberg's 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, A Dream Play, The Ghost Sonata, and The Dance of Death. 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. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199538042/?tag=2022091-20
(The five plays in this volume represent Strindberg (1849-...)
The five plays in this volume represent Strindberg (1849-1912) at the height of his dramatic powers. In his great works Strindberg is a playwright second to none, and as such he shares the world stage with his major contemporaries: Ibsen, Chekhov, Pirandello and Shaw.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1575252619/?tag=2022091-20
( Strindberg's most important and most frequently perform...)
Strindberg's most important and most frequently performed playsThe Father, Miss Julie, A Dream Play, The Dance of Death, and The Ghost Sonataare gathered together here in translations praised for their fluency and their elegance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520046986/?tag=2022091-20
August Strindberg was born on January 22, 1849, in Stockholm, Sweden to Carl Oscar Strindberg and Eleonora Ulrika Norling. His father was a shipping agent while his mother was a waitress.
He faced a challenging childhood with poverty, emotional insecurity, neglect and religious fanaticism of his grandmother which finds place in his autobiography ‘Tjänstekvinnans son’. In his childhood he was an enthusiast of photography, religion and natural science.
In 1860 he studied in a school in Jakob for a year and thereafter joined a private middle-class progressive school for boys where he studied for six years. In May 1867 he completed his graduation and on September 13 he joined the ‘Uppsala University’. While studying intermittently in the university and preparing for exam he endeavoured into non-academic activities and also worked in Stockholm in varied jobs including freelance journalist. He served as a school teacher after leaving Uppsala in 1868 and later joined the ‘Institute of Technology’ in Stockholm to study chemistry to prepare for medical studies. During this period he also worked as an extra at Stockholm’s ‘Royal Theatre’. After he failed to qualify in chemistry exam in May 1869, his inclination towards academics went down.
He served as pharmacy assistant in Lund, as substitute primary teacher and as private teacher.
In January 1870 he revisited ‘Uppsala University’ to learn modern languages and aesthetics.
He was the co-founder of a small scholarly club, the ‘Rune Society’. As other members, Strindberg also used pseudonym adopted from runes of age-old ‘Teutonic’ alphabet. His pseudonym was ‘Frö’ meaning ‘Seed’.
One of his early plays that was premiered by ‘Royal Theatre’ on September 13, 1870 was a comedy theatre piece about Bertel Thorvaldsen called ‘In Rome’ that he completed writing on March 30. Although it garnered favourable reviews, he was disappointed after watching the show.
He was influenced by the writings of Georg Brandes and Søren Kierkegaard. Encouraged by Shakespearean style, he started using more realistic and colloquial dialogues instead of the conventional ones.
On October 16, 1871 his one-act play ‘The Outlaw’, that he re-wrote as a prose from the historical tragedy ‘Sven the Sacrificer’, was premiered at the ‘Royal Theatre’. The play caught attention of King Charles XV, who aided Strindberg with a grant of 200 riksdaler.
During late 1871 he penned down the first draft of his play ‘Master Olof’ based on Olaus Petri. After being rejected by the ‘Royal Theatre’ in September 1872, it went through a number of rewrites.
He went back to the ‘Uppsala University’ to complete his final term but dropped out on March 2, 1872 before completing his graduation.
From December 1874 he served the ‘Royal Library’ for eight years as an assistant librarian. This time he approached director Edvard Stjernström of ‘New Theatre’ for his play ‘Master Olof’ but met with rejection again.
He penned down a compilation of short stories ‘Town and Gown’ in 1877 where he made contemptuous fun of Uppsala and the professors there.
He was declared bankrupt on January 9, 1879 and in November that year his novel ‘The Red Room’, a satire of the Stockholm society that is often been considered as first modern novel of Sweden, was published. Though it garnered mixed reviews in his own country, it was highly appreciated in Denmark and earned him fame across Scandinavia.
On May 3, 1880, after a gap of nine years his historical drama ‘The Secret of the Guild’ was premiered in the ‘Royal Theatre’, where his the then wife Siri played Margaretha.
At the behest of Edvard Brandes he penned down articles for the Copenhagen daily newspaper, ‘Morgenbladet’ in 1881 and in April he started writing on a series ‘The Swedish People’ based on historical culture of natives since ninth century.
On December 30 1881 he finally got his breakthrough when ‘Master Olaf’ was premiered at ‘New Theatre’ under its new artistic director, Ludvig Josephson. The play directed by August Lindberg received positive response.
In 1882 he penned down ‘The New Kingdom’, a compilation of short stories.
His major success however came with ‘Lucky Peter's Journey’, a fairy tale play that was premiered on December 22, 1883.
During the 1880s he moved to different places with his family including Grez-sur-Loing, Paris, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany.
He faced trial in Sweden with charges of blasphemy for his 1884 short stories collection, ‘Getting Married’ where he portrayed women in an equitable platform.
Many of his notable works were produced in the late 1880s including naturalistic plays like ‘The Father’ (1887) and ‘Miss Julie’ (1888). His four part autobiographical ‘The Son of a Servant’ and ‘The Confession of a Fool’ (a narrative of his married life with Siri von Essen) were also penned down during this time.
Many of his works including ‘On Psychic Murder’ (1887) and ‘’The Stronger’ (1889) reflects psychological theories and power struggles.
His writings ‘Creditors’ (1889), ‘Pariah’ (1889), ‘By the Open Sea’ (1890) and ‘The Defence of a Fool’ (1893) reflects influence of philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche.
‘The Father’ that became quite a success was premiered at Copenhagen’s ‘Casino Theatre’ on November 14, 1887.
In 1888 he set up the ‘Scandinavian Experimental Theatre’ in Copenhagen but it was short-lived.
He published an essay ‘On Modern Drama and the Modern Theatre’, in 1889 that conveyed his disconnect from naturalism which he opinionated as insignificant and banal reality.
He went into a phase of “Inferno crisis” which was marked with religious and psychological catastrophe and experiments with occult science, a period that was embodied with paranoia and visions. After suffering from bouts of psychotic attacks leading to hospitalisation, he came back to Sweden.
Some of his works during the 1890s are ‘Facing Death’, ‘The Keys of Heaven’, ‘Motherly Love’ and ‘Debit and Credit’ in 1892 and ‘The First Warning’ and ‘Playing with Fire’ in 1893.
His later works include the ‘Vasa Triology’ (1899) encompassing ‘The Saga of the Folkungs’, ‘Gustavus Vasa’ and ‘Erik XIV’.
His works during 1900s include ‘Days of Loneliness’ (1903), ‘The Gothic Rooms’ (1904), ‘The Roofing Ceremony’ (1907), ‘The Last of the Knights’ (1908) and ‘Earl Birger of Bjalbo’ (1909).
In November 1906 his play ‘Miss Julie’ was premiered at ‘The People’s Theatre’. He applied the theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ by Charles Darwin in this play.
In 1907 he established ‘The Intimate Theatre’ with the view of exclusively showcasing his plays and outlined a set of rules to be followed. ‘The Pelican’, a chamber play was the first play performed in the theatre that became a hit. However in 1910 the theatre became bankrupt and was closed in 1912 after his death.
He had a pneumonic attack in late 1911 and also suffered from stomach cancer. On May 14, 1912 he died and was buried in Stockholm’s Norra begravningsplatsen.
Regarded in his native country as the master of Swedish prose, Strindberg became known internationally as one of the major innovators in modern drama. His plays foreshadowed expressionism and the theater of the absurd, exerting an influence on subsequent playwrights equaled only by that of Ibsen and Chekhov.
(This edition embraces Strindberg's crucial transition fro...)
( Strindberg's most important and most frequently perform...)
( One of the greatest classics of modern theater the fa...)
(This play in three acts is one of the most noted by the g...)
(The five plays in this volume represent Strindberg (1849-...)
Influenced by the history of the Paris Commune, during 1871, young Strindberg embraced the view, that politics is a conflict between the upper and lower classes. He was admired by many as a far-left writer. He was a socialist (or perhaps more of an anarchist, meaning a libertarian socialist, which he himself claimed on at least one occasion). Strindberg's political opinions nevertheless changed considerably within this category over the years, and he was never primarily a political writer.
Quotations: "I am a socialist, a nihilist, a republican, anything that is anti-reactionary!. .. I want to turn everything upside down to see what lies beneath; I believe we are so webbed, so horribly regimented, that no spring-cleaning is possible, everything must be burned, blown to bits, and then we can start afresh. .. "
Strindberg's relationships with women were troubled and have often been interpreted as misogynistic by contemporaries and modern readers. Marriage and families were being stressed in Strindberg's lifetime as Sweden industrialized and urbanized at a rapid pace. Problems of prostitution and poverty were debated among writers, critics and politicians. His early writing often dealt with the traditional roles of the sexes imposed by society, which he criticized as unjust.
Strindberg, something of a polymath, was also a telegrapher, theosophist, painter, photographer and alchemist. Painting and photography offered vehicles for his belief that chance played a crucial part in the creative process.
From 1877 to 1891 he was married to Siri von Essen with whom he had three children, daughters Karin and Greta, and son Hans.
He was married to Frida Uhl from 1893 to 1895 and they had a daughter Krestin.
From 1901 to 1904 he was married with Harriet Bosse and had a daughter Anne-Marie.
