O'Neal Collection - (Complete 6 Volumes)

Author: Eugene O'Neill
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Eugene O'Neill was a renowned American tragic playwright, the founder and architect of modern American drama. In 1936, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming a globally influential playwright. Arthur Miller, the Vice President of the P.E.N. Club and a contemporary master of American drama, highly praised O'Neill, saying, "In fact, he was well-read, deeply familiar with Chinese philosophy and German philosophy, and had begun to seriously study ancient Greek. He was an extraordinary writer." O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888, in a hotel in the Broadway Theater District of New York City. The brilliance of O'Neill as a master of drama lies in his ability to move beyond simple psychoanalysis and place it within a specific social context, giving it a certain social significance. His tragedies can be broadly divided into three categories, which can be further into five: early realistic tragedies with a strong naturalistic flavor; mid-career experimental or exploratory tragedies that delve into the inner world, including expressionist tragedies, psychoanalytic tragedies, and faith-exploring tragedies; and late-stage realistic tragedies that confront the harsh realities of life. O'Neill's love poetry is particularly prominent, accounting for a significant portion of his poetic works. Due to his tuberculosis, he stayed in a sanatorium for treatment between 1912 and 1913. In 1913 and 1914, he wrote poems for two female nurses, merely expressing friendship. In 1914, he began writing poems for his lover, Beatrice Ash, and most of the poems from 1915 were written for her, filled with passionate emotions. In his long poem "On Our Beaches" (1914), O'Neill portrayed his and her inseparable love to an extreme degree.