Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 19...
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Dec 28, 2010
Austin
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Eugene O'Neill is my favorite American playwright. He is the master portraitist of denial and its correspondence with the indelible pain of past experience. Occasionally he lapses into didacticism in plays that are otherwise beautiful, poetic specimens of naturalism, but even these lapses have an affectingly brutal honesty and directness about them. They feel inevitable, like the messy casualties of war. In his lifetime bout with the truth, to determine whether it will conquer him or he it,
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Mar 04, 2008
Headcount
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You wont like this book unless you have some stodgy English professor explain all the allegorical motifs that come at certain times. However, I found this to be a masterpiece. Not to be a spoiler, but the wife is addicted to Morphine and her sons are alcoholics. Uplifting story it isn’t, but the way it is crafted and acted out was way ahead of it’s time. This might be the one time you can watch the video and then read it. Either way, this was one Eugene’s best including the Ice Man Cometh.
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Jul 04, 2011
Derek
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Long Day's Journey is, in my view, nothing less than the greatest work of American drama. Hands down. The only way to surpass the experience of reading it is by having the experience of seeing a first-rate production of it live. But, of course, the same can be said of any great play.
It was the play Eugene O'Neill had to write. The labor of doing so may ultimately have killed him, or done so as much as his alcoholism and depression. The play represents the culmination of O'Neill's dec More...
It was the play Eugene O'Neill had to write. The labor of doing so may ultimately have killed him, or done so as much as his alcoholism and depression. The play represents the culmination of O'Neill's dec More...
Jan 21, 2011
Marja
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The striking thing about the play was the tight structure of it, how nothing in it seemed superfluous or vainly added although the play stayed, dictionwise, at a very plain level, resorting to characters frequently quoting poetry to bring the imaginary level in. The characterisation is absolutely believable, and it is interesting how most of the characters are in one way or another addicted to something - it's like a family history of addiction and weakness. On the other hand, the play through a
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Jan 18, 2011
Bruce
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This play explores the dynamics of family and communication. Every bit of dialogue is indirection, insinuation, causing tension and denial and accusation that then circle around to apology, retraction, and temporary reconciliation. Lives are woven together in history, personality, and pathology, and they can never be fully disentangled. Conversations become dances, minuets of caring and hurting, love and pain. As years pass, each family member becomes so well known to the others that language
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Oct 06, 2010
Victoria
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O'Neill was a dreadful father, a falling-down drunk, and an all-around pain in the butt. But he was also a wonderful wordsmyth.
He appeared in Warren Beatty's 1980s epic drama of the Russian Revolution, Reds, played by Jack Nicholson in O'Neill's rather brief incarnation as the lover of Jack Reed's wife Louise. Diane Keaton delivers a terrific line, "Why don't you crawl back into your bottle, Gene?" and apparently O'Neill's estranged daughter Oona wrote to Nicholson later, " More...
He appeared in Warren Beatty's 1980s epic drama of the Russian Revolution, Reds, played by Jack Nicholson in O'Neill's rather brief incarnation as the lover of Jack Reed's wife Louise. Diane Keaton delivers a terrific line, "Why don't you crawl back into your bottle, Gene?" and apparently O'Neill's estranged daughter Oona wrote to Nicholson later, " More...
May 22, 2010
Surreysmum
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[These notes were made in 1982:]. The first thing that struck me about this play, as about most modern plays, was the minuteness of the stage directions - far beyond what any director could reasonably be expected to reproduce. It has often occurred to me that these playwrights, with their desire to control every detail, are really novelists manqués. Of course, the detail is useful to the actors trying to create a character, and modern theories of acting (Method? - I know nothing about these t
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Jul 01, 2009
Carolyn
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Long Day’s Journey Into Night reminded me to some extent of Tobacco Road, although the circumstances portrayed in the former did not seem as set in stone as in the latter. Certainly each character is shaped to a great degree by their past, and it becomes both a place to take refuge in and a time to blame present circumstances on. As Mary’s morphine use becomes heavier, she retreats further back into idealized memories of her girlhood and her marriage to Tyrone. Her dead child haunts her as we
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Feb 19, 2009
Ayne
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Considered Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece, this play was, at the request of the author, not to be released until 25 years after his death due to its brutally painful insight into a dysfunctional family that was modeled after his own. (However, since his immediate family died several decades before the author, his wife allowed its publication a few years after his death.) The story takes place in a single day, following a mother, father, and two sons as they deal with the emotional fallout of the
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Apr 05, 2011
Marija
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Long Day’s Journey into Night is a true embodiment of that saying “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Witnessing a day in the life of the Tyrone family is like watching an all day fencing match, every member of the family constantly challenging each other to verbal duels. Some of their cutting remarks are bitterly cruel, interlaced with a morbid sense of humor. It’s awful and wonderful at the same time.
Compounding the dark bitterness of the play are the subtle details and actions i More...
Compounding the dark bitterness of the play are the subtle details and actions i More...
Dec 16, 2011
Gina
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This masterpiece play is semi-autobiographical of O’Neil’s family. The play tells the story of the “Tyrone” family- a fictional name for the O’Neils. The story is extremely unhappy. The youngest son, Edmund is diagnosed with tuberculosis; his mother is addicted to narcotics, his older brother to alcohol. The reality of O’Neil’s family life turned him into who he was; a brilliant playwright. The play takes place over the course of one day, which explains the name of the title. Some may wonder why
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Aug 02, 2011
Mom's a morphine addict (though, in 1912, she can go score the stuff at a drugstore, a far more civilized set-up than today's). Dad's a miserly, washed-up actor who gets suckered into buying worthless real estate. Older bro Jamie frequents taverns and patronizes whores (preferring it if they're on the heavy side), middle brother Eugene (hmm...) died at age two of measles, younger brother reads decadent lit. when Dad wants him to read Shakespeare, and is probably going to die soon of TB. Along w
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Nov 02, 2010
Amanda
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Warning: This play not make you feel all warm and fuzzy, however, it will be one of the best plays you read in your lifetime.
Eugene O'Neill's, "Long Day's Journey into Night," not only holds a steadfast and sturdy place in my heart, but is also the receiver of many honorary awards and positive criticisms. The play is one of O'Neill's greatest works and also happens to be autobiographical. Incredibly sad and heart-wrenching, the plot centers around a family filled with addictio More...
Eugene O'Neill's, "Long Day's Journey into Night," not only holds a steadfast and sturdy place in my heart, but is also the receiver of many honorary awards and positive criticisms. The play is one of O'Neill's greatest works and also happens to be autobiographical. Incredibly sad and heart-wrenching, the plot centers around a family filled with addictio More...
Oct 25, 2010
steph b.
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I’ve wanted to read this play for a quite a long time. I would often forget the title and refer to it as the cocktail play. Yes, the most recent edition’s stark white cover has a singular glass of whiskey (on the rocks) on it. When I finished reading the play, I had a singular glass of red wine to toast Mr. Eugene O’Neill and his work…mainly because 1. I don’t own any whiskey; 2. because wine was all I had around; and 3.
because a small toast was the least I could do for Eugene.
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because a small toast was the least I could do for Eugene.
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Apr 03, 2010
Sam
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I really like the structure of this play - how the story unfolds in the tiniest bits and pieces, edging along so that you never quite know what's entirely going on until the end of the play. Mary's addiction was heartbreaking, as were her confessions about what she felt drove her to them, and each of the other character's stories really broke my heart. It felt like they all hated the decisions they had made in the past, but couldn't repent them or change their direction - Tyrone would always be
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Mar 16, 2010
Steve
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Wow, these people were messed up. But, like any writing, the autobiography here is not relevant to the play as a work of art.
As far as that goes, this is brilliant. One gets the sense that, as it was said of Chekhov's plays, nothing happens and everything happens. All of the important action has already happened by the time Act One happens; the rest is just re-telling it and re-living it. The audience is given no reason--other than that there is a play about it--that this day is any More...
As far as that goes, this is brilliant. One gets the sense that, as it was said of Chekhov's plays, nothing happens and everything happens. All of the important action has already happened by the time Act One happens; the rest is just re-telling it and re-living it. The audience is given no reason--other than that there is a play about it--that this day is any More...
Sep 09, 2009
Tom
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There is a story that after Eugene O'Neill died, as they were cleaning out his room, they found the typewriter that he used to write this play. Its keys were worn down to the numb, numbs that were filled with dried blood.
The theory being that while O'Neill finished his last full realized (there were others discovered and published posthumously) and most personal play, he was chewing through his nails and pounding on the keys, a mere glimpse into the depth and pain which he so brillia More...
The theory being that while O'Neill finished his last full realized (there were others discovered and published posthumously) and most personal play, he was chewing through his nails and pounding on the keys, a mere glimpse into the depth and pain which he so brillia More...
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Oct 06, 2010
Emily
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It's amazing how through dialogues it can evoke a deep picture of family life, regrets, living in the past, and love mingled with hate and resenment. Our to-be selves lost for what we ended up being. It's so human. So real. And thought-provocking. The passing of time. All characters flawed but human, loveable in spite of this. Eugene O'Neill is definitely one of the best playwrights. I've liked this one even more than Mourning Becomes Electra. Is full of sentiment. And it gives you a bit of insi
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Aug 09, 2011
A bit of a grueling read, LDJIN was uncomfortably close and familiar in it's treatise of the dysfunctional family, each of the characters representing one or more archetypes undoubtedly familiar to family counselors and psychologists.
I suspect this work was a cathartic endeavor for O'Neill, and in that regard my hope is that he did in fact find release, since otherwise this work was a perpetual pressure cooker of rage, despair, hate, utter surrender, and hopelessness, coupled with escapist mania More...
I suspect this work was a cathartic endeavor for O'Neill, and in that regard my hope is that he did in fact find release, since otherwise this work was a perpetual pressure cooker of rage, despair, hate, utter surrender, and hopelessness, coupled with escapist mania More...
Dec 10, 2011
Angela
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It's almost blasphemous that I hadn't read any of O'Neill's plays. Plays are glorious, and O'Neill is a genius. I knew this before I even read it.
This may seem horribly typical for me to say, but Long Day's Journey into Night is brilliant. The action only occurs over a span of one day, but we learn so much about this family over that time. The father and sons are alcoholics, each denying it themselves and seeing it only in the others. The mother, in addition, has her own addiction, w More...
This may seem horribly typical for me to say, but Long Day's Journey into Night is brilliant. The action only occurs over a span of one day, but we learn so much about this family over that time. The father and sons are alcoholics, each denying it themselves and seeing it only in the others. The mother, in addition, has her own addiction, w More...
Nov 13, 2011
Don't read this play if you or your family have a history of drug addiction and/or alcoholism and you don't want to be reminded of it. This play is about the disintegration of a family whose members are, variously, addicted to drugs or alcohol; tormented by the failure of their dreams; or dying from disease on top of the other problems.
That said...this is a fascinating play with a explosive end. The first three acts are so quiet in comparison, in their depiction of the Tyrone family' More...
That said...this is a fascinating play with a explosive end. The first three acts are so quiet in comparison, in their depiction of the Tyrone family' More...
Jan 22, 2012
Frankie
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I had the opportunity to read this in World Drama class years ago, but I admit shamefully that I skimmed it. Now, knowing the autobiographical context and the actual accuracy of O'Neill's family history portrayed here, I couldn't help but feel emotionally invested. In the dedication to his wife at the beginning, O'Neill describes it as "this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood." Sounds melodramatic, and the first half may indeed seem so. But for me this play carries a sucker
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Feb 12, 2010
Cathy
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Drunk and high people preaching and arguing are annoying in real life and they aren't less so because Eugene O'Neill wrote them. I found the inebriated, incessant alternation between fighting and sentimental musings (which make up the entire play) to be tiresome and boring. That being said, the characters are kind of interesting and despite the extreme nature of the family's issues, I think most readers can relate to the notion of love/hate relationships in family and the fear/regret in missed o
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Mar 27, 2010
Jason
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From Act 1 Eugene O'Neill jerks away the patchwork veil from the face of a family to reveal the anatomy of the skin, every pustule, all the carbuncles, discoloration and scars, the embarrassing halitosis, wax and hairs—the attributes that, up close, make us ugly human beings. Long Day's Journey Into Night is a naked insight to the brutal, unyielding properties that trap families into dysfunctional, vengeful, malignant relations.
Guilt, criticism, paranoia, competition, blame, hate, More...
Guilt, criticism, paranoia, competition, blame, hate, More...
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Jun 16, 2009
Cindy
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The Tyrones - mother, father, and two sons - spend a day more or less together in the country. Within the course of that day, we see all sorts of nasty little secrets that were only suggested in the first act.
This is the first O'Neill play I have read, and I have to say that I found it excellent. Not much fun, but really well done. The theme, to me, was that of excuses, excuses. The entire family has someone - someone else, that is - to blame for being the way they are. Mary blames h More...
This is the first O'Neill play I have read, and I have to say that I found it excellent. Not much fun, but really well done. The theme, to me, was that of excuses, excuses. The entire family has someone - someone else, that is - to blame for being the way they are. Mary blames h More...
Apr 29, 2009
Jil
rated it:
I’ve been telling myself for the past three years, “It really is about time that you read some O’ Neill, Gillian…”, because not having read any O’Neill signified a huge and gaping flaw in my theatre self-education.
So I decided to fix this tragic problem, picking the play that is so often compared to one of my faves, August: Osage County. Let me tell you, reading Long Day’s Journey into Night made me think of Tracy Letts as a big ol’ copycat, though still a talented one. The similarit More...
So I decided to fix this tragic problem, picking the play that is so often compared to one of my faves, August: Osage County. Let me tell you, reading Long Day’s Journey into Night made me think of Tracy Letts as a big ol’ copycat, though still a talented one. The similarit More...
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Feb 20, 2008
Andrea
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For those unfamiliar with the plot, the play takes place in one day during which a double crisis rekindles smouldering grudges and recollections of the Tyrone family's troubled family history. Crisis one centers on Mary Tyrone, the convent-bred mother who is teetering on the brink of once again losing her long battle with morphine addiction; an addiction which she and her alcoholic older son blame on the chronic miserliness of the head of the household, a hack actor. Crisis two, which has exacer
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Jan 08, 2009
Katy
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The sadness and desperation in this play are somewhat overbearing, yet simultaneously fascinating. Of course, I've always found modern American playwrights' fixation with family interaction interesting, but the combo of O'Neill's focus on addiction and the parallel to his own life kept me glued to the page. I think the scariest (or the most intriguing, depending on your point of view) aspect of O'Neill's writing is that no matter how comparatively sunny your family life may be, you can find a bi
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Oct 15, 2007
Baiocco
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I'll tell you, this play is some sort of sadness. Family's can be painful as it is, but O'Neil's unrelenting portrayal of the haunted Tyrone family was so close to his own family story that he demanded the play not to be released until he was dead, and with good reason because it is an at times excruciating study of a tragic family failing, cloaked in denial and secrecy, exposed to it's most honest details, faults and tenderest connection family flesh and blood. That Oneil was able to journey
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Nov 25, 2011
Chuck
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Katherine Hepburn on screen was one of our greatest tragic actresses. I would have sold my soul to see her on stage.
And in the movie the husband and sons are able to keep up with her. The final moments of the movie are breathtaking.
I'm not a big fan of showing movies to high school students but I would make an exception for this one. I see this movie version as looking at addiction from the inside out as opposed to most movies where the viewer is usually just a spectator.
And in the movie the husband and sons are able to keep up with her. The final moments of the movie are breathtaking.
I'm not a big fan of showing movies to high school students but I would make an exception for this one. I see this movie version as looking at addiction from the inside out as opposed to most movies where the viewer is usually just a spectator.
