Alice in Bed

Author: (American) Susan Sontag (Sontag, S.), translated by Feng Tao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Alice in Bed is a play about women, about their suffering, and about their self-awareness. It is a fantasy based on a real person, Alice James—the youngest sister of Henry James, one of America’s greatest novelists, and William James, one of the greatest psychologists and ethicists of the 19th century. At the age of 19, the tide of melancholy overwhelmed her mind; she once tried to take her own life, she endured various inexplicable and extremely tormenting illnesses, she traveled overseas, she lay in bed for long periods, she kept a diary, and she died at the age of 43. In Sontag’s play about women, Alice James is once again conflated in imagination with Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Additionally, Sontag summons the spirits of two 19th-century American women writers: Emily Dickinson and Margaret Fuller, and two representative angry women from the 19th-century stage: Melisande (from Gussetel) and Kundry (from Wagner’s Parsifal), to attend a “tea party of the mad.” Alice in Bed is Sontag’s only play, yet she said, “I feel as if my entire life was preparation for writing Alice in Bed.” The play consists of eight acts and is a “fantasy based on a real person,” that is, Alice James, who came from an outstanding American family. She had two renowned brothers—one was the 19th-century famous writer Henry James, and the other was the 19th-century great psychologist William James. Like her brothers, Alice was exceptionally intelligent and also a well-known feminist icon, but she was tormented by depression from the age of 19, once tried to take her own life, and ultimately died of illness at the age of 43. The play also features several appearances by her younger brother, Henry James. In this sharp and fictional story, the dialogue is witty and concise, and the plot is tightly paced.