Summary
Produced after the death of Eugene O'Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night is generally considered the author’s masterpiece and a seminal drama of the 20th century. The play explores the contradictory nature of family and the deep, yet tenuous, bonds uniting the Tyrones. O'Neill added autobiographical resonance to his portrait of four flawed dreamers struggling to accept the limitations and vulnerabilities with which they have been burdened. This edition in the Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations series offers a selection of full-length critical essays that explore the restrictive, but essential, familial bonds that mark and define the characters’ lives. Complete with an introductory essay by literary scholar Harold Bloom, this study guide also features a chronology, a bibliography, an index, and notes about the contributors.
Specifications
Chronology. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author(s)
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. Educated at Cornell and Yale universities, he is the author of 30 books, including Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake's Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996), and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), a 1998 National Book Award finalist. The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom's provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include How to Read and Why (2000), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003), Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (2004), and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). In addition, he is the author of hundreds of articles, reviews, and editorial introductions. In 1999, Professor Bloom received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. He has also received the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.