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Anna Christie, The Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape

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This edition provides three original plays by Eugene O'Neill, about men at war with themselves and society. In "The Emperor Jones" Brutus Jones is a black man who has escaped the law in the United States and found refuge on an island in the West Indies. Through deceit, Jones becomes emperor over the `bush Negroes' he so despises. The play opens on an empty court with a cockney confronting the last of Jones' servants who is preparing to `run away to the hills'. When Jones awakes and is

told of the situation by Smithers, he masks his cowardess with fake bravado and is soon overcome by his guilty conscience of taxing the people and of his former life. O'Neill delivers his vision of a destitute man and his guilty conscience masterfully, using the vibrant pulse of a tom-tom to keep the continuous beat that spells Jones' doom. In `"Anna Christie"', a Swedish Sailor and his daughter are reunited only to discover that everything can not be perfect after 15 years of separation. It is the story of Chris coming to terms with the knowledge that he could have provided a better life for his daughter, Anna. At the same time, Anna must realize that she can not live in a lie, but must tell her father and boyfriend the truth and ask for their forgiveness, while also learning how to love. As in O'Neill's other plays, the characters portrayed are at the bottom of the social ladder and must also come to terms with their station in life. Finally, O'Neill tells the story of a coal stoker on a steam-ship who is confronted with the realization that he is nothing but the dregs of society. With the innocence of a child, Yank personifies himself as steel, he is the power of the steamboat and nothing can stop him. Yank thinks only of himself and those around him, not daring to imagine a world outside that of his natural habitat, the furnace. In five minutes Yank's world comes crashing down as a woman from the outside looks in and is horrified by what she sees in the men. Through possible jealousy and despise, Yank attempts to avenge himself of the girl who condescended on him. When Yank is snubbed by a group he wants to join that could bring him his coveted revenge, he is cast further into gloom and self pity. With nowhere to turn, Yank breaks into a zoo where he confronts his fears by addressing what society claims is his equal. Eventually, Yank is brought to the cruel reality that he is nothing but a `Hairy Ape'. O'Neill wrote the characters in The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, and The Hairy Ape as people at the bottom of the social ladder suffering from grief and guilty consciences because all people can identify with their trials and eventual reconciliations. Beautifully written and always stirring, these plays will never leave your mind or heart empty.

Just finished it! This is the best play I have ever read. In fact perhaps the best piece of writing ever read. An incredible journey through the past of a black man, Brutus jones aka Emperor jones, who over comes life to become an Emperor of an island in the West Indies. Only to find he has become something he hates, predominantly a white man stealing and corrupting his own brothers. He remembers his past violently attacking it, until he is killed by his own beliefs, when he told the natives he could only be kill by a silver bullet, the natives coerced him with haunting drum beats in the night while they made the silver bullet. forcing jones to go mad, and break down to defeat. He runs in acircle right into the native silver bullet!

INCLUDES: Emperor Jones; Anna Christie; The Hairy Ape. "Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 - November 27, 1953) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism pioneered by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, and August Strindberg into American drama, and was the first to use truly American vernacular in his speeches. His plays involve characters who inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote only one comedy (Ah, Wilderness!); all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy or personal pessimism. He was also part of the modern movement to revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays. O'Neill was very interested in the Faust theme, especially in the 1920s." -- Wikipedia.