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Strindberg: A Biography
Called "that greatest genius of all modern dramatists" by Eugene O'Neill, Strindberg was one of the founders of the modern theater--a prolific author whose works prefigured those of Pinter, Beckett, and Ionesco. Yet, despite their admiration by such contemporaries as Ibsen, Chekhov, and
George Bernard Shaw, Strindberg's works were misunderstood and rejected by his fellow Swedes, who throughout his life considered him a crank and a failure.
In this definitive biography, Michael Meyer, the foremost translator of Strindberg's plays into English, presents a full and honest portrait of Strindberg as man and artist. Concentrating on his contribution to the theater, Meyer has sifted through Strindberg's voluminous autobiographical
writings as well as published and unpublished letters to discover the source of his art and its meaning to both Strindberg and the theater. He also gives a sense of Strindberg's troubled life--his three tempestuous marriages, his exile, his often disputatious relations with other artists-- and
sheds new light on the playwright's supposed misogyny, his bouts with madness, and his paranoia.
George Bernard Shaw, Strindberg's works were misunderstood and rejected by his fellow Swedes, who throughout his life considered him a crank and a failure.
In this definitive biography, Michael Meyer, the foremost translator of Strindberg's plays into English, presents a full and honest portrait of Strindberg as man and artist. Concentrating on his contribution to the theater, Meyer has sifted through Strindberg's voluminous autobiographical
writings as well as published and unpublished letters to discover the source of his art and its meaning to both Strindberg and the theater. He also gives a sense of Strindberg's troubled life--his three tempestuous marriages, his exile, his often disputatious relations with other artists-- and
sheds new light on the playwright's supposed misogyny, his bouts with madness, and his paranoia.
672 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 1985
About the author
Michael Meyer
36 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Michael Leverson Meyer (11 June 1921 – 3 August 2000) was an English translator, biographer, journalist and dramatist.
Meyer was born in London into a timber merchant family of Jewish origin, and studied English at Christ Church College, Oxford. His first translation of a Swedish book was the novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson, published by Collins in 1954. He is best known for his translations of the works of two Scandinavian playwrights, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Braham Murray wrote of Meyer in his obituary published by The Guardian that Meyer was "the greatest translator of Ibsen and Strindberg into English there has ever been" even superior to William Archer, but Inga-Stina Ewbank and especially Jan Myrdal has criticizes the mistranslations, where Myrdal tries to prove that they are made deliberately. Myrdal also strongly criticizes Meyer's biography of Strindberg.
Meyer's journalism appeared in the New York Review of Books. He also wrote acclaimed biographies of both these playwrights; the three volume work on Ibsen (1967–71) won the 1971 Whitbread Award for Biography and the work on Strindberg appeared in 1985. His autobiography Not Prince Hamlet was published in 1989.
Michael Leverson Meyer (11 June 1921 – 3 August 2000) was an English translator, biographer, journalist and dramatist.
Meyer was born in London into a timber merchant family of Jewish origin, and studied English at Christ Church College, Oxford. His first translation of a Swedish book was the novel The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson, published by Collins in 1954. He is best known for his translations of the works of two Scandinavian playwrights, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. Braham Murray wrote of Meyer in his obituary published by The Guardian that Meyer was "the greatest translator of Ibsen and Strindberg into English there has ever been" even superior to William Archer, but Inga-Stina Ewbank and especially Jan Myrdal has criticizes the mistranslations, where Myrdal tries to prove that they are made deliberately. Myrdal also strongly criticizes Meyer's biography of Strindberg.
Meyer's journalism appeared in the New York Review of Books. He also wrote acclaimed biographies of both these playwrights; the three volume work on Ibsen (1967–71) won the 1971 Whitbread Award for Biography and the work on Strindberg appeared in 1985. His autobiography Not Prince Hamlet was published in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2024
Unreadable.
December 20, 2012
The definitive biography on the great Swedish playwright/writer. It won't have to be done again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews