Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O'Neill

by Travis Bogard

Eugene O'Neill, one of America's most gifted and prolific playwrights, wrote more than 60 plays between 1914 and 1941, a level of creativity paralleled in modern times only by Bernard Shaw. The progress of his art from crude, one-act plays to the monumental tragedies of his later years is a story as dramatic and compelling as that of his tortured personal history. Combining the two, Professor Bogard traces the contours of O'Neill's life in his art. By discussing, in their approximate order of composition, the published and unpublished works, Bogard illuminates not only the plays, but also the literary, aesthetic, and historical influences on the playwright's development. For the revised edition of this insightful, meticulously written work, the author has added new and unpublished material on A Tale of Possessors, Self-dispossessed , a cycle of nine plays written by O'Neill during the 1930s and '40s, only one of which he readied for the stage. Among the plays in this cycle
that have been posthumously produced are More Stately Mansions (New York, 1967) and A Touch of the Poet (New York, 1958).

Genres: Theatre

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[withdrawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Contour in Time as a critical companion to the 3 volume Library of America edition of O'Neill's Complete Plays, edited by Travis Bogart.

Bogart did an excellent job of analyzing each of O'Neill's plays, from the first one act attempts to the final masterpieces. He was exceptional at identifying the development of themes as they moved from one work to the next, gaining strength, changing or eventually disappearing.

Generally, Bogard only used events of the playwright's life to explain or analyze the plays when they were absolutely pertinent. For the most part, biography is kept to one page bullets at the beginning of each unit of the book. This gives background without confounding the life with the work.

The one area where Bogard fails at this is when he tries to use psychoanalysis, not just on the characters, but also on O'Neill. I suppose that it is forgivable in that, in 1972 when this book was written, psychoanalytic literary criticism was still going strong. I am thankful that Bogart does so little of it in an otherwise excellent book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in O'Neill's plays.