In the author's introduction to "A Dream Play", Strindberg focuses on what he sees as the real nature of dreams-- disconnected and painful, with their own strange logic. I think he captures something of that feeling in all of the five plays in this collection, even given that some of his plays come more explicitly from his symbolic works.

In this collection, the reader is presented with the classic Strindberg themes-- the emancipated woman, rebellion, religious symbolism, and always in every way the search for meaning.

_The Father_ pits a man and woman against each other in a destructive effort to control their daughter's destiny.

_Miss Julie_ depicts the seduction and discard of a silly young girl who is harshly confronted with the basic coldness of life.

_Dance of Death_ is a grim look at a marriage based on hatred, as an ex-actress and an army captain are stuck together on an isolated island.

In _A Dream Play_ Indra's daughter is sent to earth to live as best as she can among mortals.

_The Ghost Sonata_ explores dream logic in three movements. A meditation on the difference between just and proper.

A decent translation, at least I didn't trip over it as awkward. A sad and dislocating book to read, and rare in that it's worth reading as literature without needing to consider its staging to see its value.

This is a pretty decent translation and an outstanding point of departure for Strindberg's strange, strange dramatic world. I speak and read Swedish and have studied Strindberg in some depth, but I still find this an evocative and stimulating collection.

The Ghost Sonata is one of the most beautiful and haunting works I have ever experienced.

Naturalistic fiction has never been so stripped,
a choking ibsenomaic portion;
precocial nautch that grows as it goes.
Strindberg's stronger wiccecræft stronger.

Worth witenagemot!©

After writing the Red Room and several other wonderful books, Father is really one of Strindberg's most fantastic work. It is stunning how a person can describe human beings in the way Strindberg does, or did, since he past away over 80 years ago... Just buy it and read it.

i did not come to this site buying the book ... i wanted the translation og the monologe of "The blind man" into english .... it is tough, and a short cut of a life ...

I read The Father and the first part of Miss Julie in the University of California translation and then the rest of the plays in this one, and as far as I can tell neither seems more awkward than the other--but the Oxford translation holds the major advantage in that it contains copious notes on the many obscure literary and sociocultural references throughout the plays. I noticed that in at least some sections in the UC version the obscurities are ironed out (the English translation for "biblia pauperum" is incorporated into the text, and in The Father a reference to a book by an 18th century author unknown outside Sweden, unnecessary to the action, becomes "a book"), but there are many other cases where it is simply passed over without a mention. Granted, if you are buying a copy or multiple copies of the plays in order to perform them, it is unlikely that the references will be useful, but for those interested in a critical reading of them, the Oxford edition will undoubtedly be favorable. It is also mentioned that this edition draws off of the most recent versions of the original works being published as a set in Sweden, but since I have no knowledge of Swedish and there are no examples in either edition of the translation in progress, I can't really comment on that.

A minor point with the Oxford edition is that it seems very sloppily assembled at times, which is a bit surprising given the usual quality level in this series. For instance, the page-formatting was done inaccurately, so that whenever a parenthesis for a stage direction falls at the end of a line, it is cut off--and this occurs all throughout the book, not a crucial problem by any means, but just an unsettling indication of carelessness. There are also several spelling errors in the plays, and a couple misquotations in the annotations. Once again, these are not crucial flaws, but a little sloppiness can make the reader wonder what else was neglected which may have slipped past his awareness.

Overall, despite the flaws, this is the edition of Strindberg's major plays to have for a reader who is interested in not only performing but also studying the works.

The play is full of humorous sarcasm, and sometimes exaggerations on Strindberg. I didn't understand Strindberg until I read this play, which is better than any other biographies (ok, this is not exactly all about Strindberg, but his character was certainly being presented in this play).

This trilogy should be recognized as a vital moment in the history of theatre, rather than a case of dramatic autobiography by an eccentric author. It is hard to know where to start this review, because so many subjects are covered and contradicted in these works. As readers we are led to regard it as a personal struggle, from the point of view of the Stranger (or the Unknown). We cannot even be sure if the seperate characters are all manifestations of one central character or not. The Stranger seems to be constantly buffeted and abused by fate.

One reservation I would have is with the translation, which seems laboured at times. I would love to be able to read it in the original and see if this is a fault of tanslation or Strindberg himself. Still, the raw energy and downright 'oddness' of this epic more than makes up for any reservations.

Volume 1 includes the following plays: The Father, Miss Julie, Creditors, The Stronger, Playing with Fire, Erik the Fourteenth, Storm, and the Ghost Sonata

This book is a revelation. It shows that the genius of Strindberg extends beyond the literary and makes itself evident in the visual as well. The paintings in this book are amazing; landscapes made over a hundred years ago that are heavily impastoed and luminous- the quality is almost sculptural- and border on pure abstraction. It's difficult to compare them to anyone else's work (though they do have a quality that recalls Turner in a darker mode). These are paintings that would thrill you if you walked into a contemporary gallery. The book also has a generous selection of Strindberg's photographs and photographic experiments. It's a must have for painters and lovers of modern art.

Strindberg was one of the foremost playwrights of the 19th century, almost equal in stature to the other great Scandinavian, Ibsen. This work is a departure in that the author takes as his subject his own psyche. The schizophrenia and paranoia he suffers from comes at the reader in waves. We are drawn into the vortex of his twisted reasoning, his fears, his misanthropic vision. About the nearest parallel I can think of is the work of Antonin Artaud, who also is quite adept at describing his own psychoses. What seperates them, in my opinion, is that Strindberg is a much greater writer and can at times objectively look at his subject (himself), whereas Arataud tends towards the monomaniacal. I would recommend this work for anyone interested in modern playwrights or in the psychological underpinnings of the artistic temperament.

In Inferno Strindberg writes about the mental problems that he suffered from during the 1890s in a such a convincing way that you almost begin to wonder whether he really was mad. At times you really believe that everyone was out to get him and maybe they were(he made himself very impopular in his native Sweden with some of his books). I guess this book gives you a good description of just how fine the line between genious and insanity is. If you like Térèse Raquin by Zola this one is for you!

A previous reviewer (annalait@apia.vlk.fi) commented that Miss Julie is a true story about Strindberg, his 16 yr. old lover and his wife Harriet. This is not entirely correct. It is based on one of his marriages - to his first wife Siri von Essen. He married Siri in 1877. Miss Julie was written in 1888 and was first put on stage in 1889 with Siri acting out the role of Julie. He divorced Siri in 1891 and did not meet Harriet (who was actually his third wife) until 1900. They married in 1901. Strindberg identifies with Jean in the play. Strindberg felt inferior to Siri (a Baroness). Jean was also inferior to Julie but he triumphed over her in the end.

"Miss Julie," by August Strindberg, is a play with three speaking parts: Miss Julie, a nobleman's daughter; Jean, a young valet; and Christine, a cook in the household. The Dover Thrift Edition version is translated by Edwin Bjorkman. A brief introductory note states that the play first appeared as a printed text in 1888, a year before its first staging.

The play's title character is bold and flirtatious; her behavior, unsurprisingly, leads to controversy. "Miss Julie" is a fascinating glimpse at a society that is rigidly ordered around class stratification, gender roles, and sexual conduct; the play looks at the consequences when people resist this rigid order. The play has some really startling, thought-provoking dialogue.

Recommended companion texts: "Hands Around," by Arthur Schnitzler; "Daisy Miler," by Henry James; and "Cuckoos," by Giuseppe Manfridi. Each of these three literary works shares at least one significant theme or motif in common with "Miss Julie."

See the universal Man and Woman turn away everything for lust in this epic short drama of classic literature. A emotionally wrenching work complete with chorus.