Miss Julia and 15 Other Plays

By August Strindberg

This file includes: There Are Crimes and Crimes, translated by Edwin Bjoerkman; Miss Julia 1888, translated by Edwin Bjoerkman; The Stronger 1889, translated by Edwin Bjoerkman; Creditors 1888, translated by Edwin Bjoerkman; Pariah 1888, translated by Edwin Bjoerkman; Comrades 1888, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; Facing Death, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; Easter 1900, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; Father 1887, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; Countess Julie, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; The Outlaw 1871, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; The Stronger 1889, translated by Edith and Waerner Oland; Lucky Pehr 1882, translated by Velma Swanston; The Road to Damascus (trilogy, all three parts) 1902, translated by Graham Rowson. According to Wikipedia: "Johan August Strindberg (22 January 1849 – 14 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright and writer. He is arguably the most influential of all Swedish authors, and one of the most influential Scandinavian authors, along with Knut Hamsun, with whom he fraternized while in Paris during the mid 1890s, Henrik Ibsen, Søren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen. Strindberg is known as one of the developers of modern theatre. His work is of two major literary styles, Naturalism and Expressionism."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455393763

August Strindberg

Harry G. Carlson teaches Drama and Theatre at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He has written widely on Swedish drama and theatre and has been honored in Sweden for his books, Strindberg and the Poetry of Myth (California, 1982) and Out of Inferno: Strindberg's Reawakening as an Artist (1996), play translations and critical essays.

Book preview

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 MISS JULIA

TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY EDWIN BJOeRKMAN

INTRODUCTION

The volume containing the translation of There Are Crimes and Crimes had barely reached the public when word came across the ocean that August Strindberg had ended his long fight with life. His family had long suspected some serious organic trouble. Early in the year, when lie had just recovered from an illness of temporary character, their worst fears became confirmed. An examination disclosed a case of cancer in the stomach, and the disease progressed so rapidly that soon all hope of recovery was out of the question. On May 14, 1912, Strindberg died.

With his death peace came in more senses than one. All the fear and hatred which he had incurred by what was best as well as worst in him seemed to be laid at rest with his own worn-out body. The love and the admiration which he had son in far greater measure were granted unchecked expression. His burial, otherwise as simple as he himself had prescribed, was a truly national event. At the grave of the arch-rebel appeared a royal prince as official representative of the reigning house, the entire cabinet, and numerous members of the Riksdag. Thousands of men and women representing the best of Sweden's intellectual and artistic life went to the cemetery, though the hour of the funeral was eight o'clock in the morning. It was an event in which the masses and the classes shared a common sorrow, the standards of student organizations mingling with the banners of labour unions. And not only the capital, but the whole country, observed the day as one of mourning.

A thought frequently recurring in the comment passed on Strindberg's death by the European press was that, in some mysterious manner, he, more than any other writer, appeared to be the incarnation of the past century, with its nervous striving after truth, its fear of being duped, and its fretting dread that evolution and progress might prove antagonistic terms. And at that simple grave in Stockholm more than one bareheaded spectator must have heard the gravel rattle on the coffin-lid with a feeling that not only a great individual, but a whole human period--great in spite of all its weaknesses--was being laid away for ever.

 Among more than half a hundred plays produced by Strindberg during his lifetime, none has won such widespread attention as Miss Julia, both on account of its masterful construction and its gripping theme. Whether liking or disliking it, critics have repeatedly compared it with Ibsen's Ghosts, and not always to the advantage of the latter work. It represents, first of all, its author's most determined and most daring endeavour to win the modern stage for Naturalism. If he failed in this effort, it must be recalled to his honour that he was among the first to proclaim his own failure and to advocate the seeking of new paths. When the work was still hot from his hands, however, he believed in it with all the fervour of which his spirit was capable, and to bring home its lesson the more forcibly, he added a preface, a sort of dramatic creed, explaining just what he had tried to do, and why. This preface, which has become hardly less famous than the play itself, is here, as I believe, for the first time rendered into English. The acuteness and exhaustiveness of its analysis serves not only to make it a psychological document of rare value, but also to save me much of the comment which without it might be deemed needful.

Years later, while engaged in conducting a theatre for the exclusive performance of his own plays at Stockholm, Strindberg formulated a new dramatic creed--that of his mystical period, in which he was wont to sign himself the author of 'Gustavus Vasa,' 'The Dream Play,' 'The Last Knight,' etc. It took the form of a pamphlet entitled A Memorandum to the Members of the Intimate Theatre from the Stage Director (Stockholm, 1908). There he gave the following data concerning Miss Julia, and the movement which that play helped to start:

"In the '80's the new time began to extend its demands for reform to the stage also. Zola declared war against the French comedy, with its Brussels carpets, its patent-leather shoes and patent-leather themes, and its dialogue reminding one of the questions and answers of the Catechism. In 1887 Antoine opened his Theatre Libre at Paris, and 'Therese Raquin,' although nothing but an adapted novel, became the dominant model. It was the powerful theme and the concentrated form that showed innovation, although the unity of time was not yet observed, and curtain falls were retained. It was then I wrote my dramas: 'Miss Julia,' 'The Father,' and 'Creditors.'

"'Miss Julia,' which was equipped with a now well-known preface, was staged by Antoine, but not until 1892 or 1893, having previously been played by the Students' Association of the Copenhagen University in 1888 or 1889. In the spring of 1893 'Creditors' was put on at the Theatre L'OEuvre, in Paris, and in the fall of the same year 'The Father' was given at the same theatre, with Philippe Garnier in the title part.

"But as early as 1889 the Freie Buehne had been started at Berlin, and before 1893 all three of my dramas had been performed. 'Miss Julia' was preceded by a lecture given by Paul Schlenther, now director of the Hofburg Theater at Vienna. The principal parts were played by Rosa Bertens, Emanuel Reicher, Rittner and Jarno. And Sigismund Lautenburg, director of the Residenz Theater, gave more than one hundred performances of