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Article: Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy.(Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- October 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Stephen A. Black Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy. Yale University Press, 543 pages, $29.95.
Eugene O'Neill was one of those figures in American arts and letters whose principal stock in trade was domestic agony. His best work came from being the youngest son of a respectable but dysfunctional American Irish Catholic family. As a boy, Eugene learned about the theater through his father, one of the most famous actors of his time. The future playwright spent his adolescence as an enthusiastic rakehell, partial to drink, whores, and lowlife companions. These tastes, combined with a deliberate failure to complete his Princeton education, a bout of ...