The Emperor Jones: unabridged (Dover Thrift Editions) [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Eugene O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Thrift Editions | Publication Date: November 17, 2011

Powerful drama, rapidly shifting scenes describe fall of Brutus Jones, the self-proclaimed, plundering monarch of a West Indian island, whose flight into the jungle from rebellious subjects is plagued by ghosts and visions. Bold, expressionistic work established O’Neill as one of America’s most important dramatists.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (November 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486292681
• ISBN-13: 978-0486292687
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > History

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emperor Jones--One of O'Neill's Best, January 27, 2002

By 

"beetyj" (Logansport, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor Jones (Paperback)

While psychological drama does not often achieve its goal, O'Neill gets it right with "The Emperor Jones." Even when reading the play, one develops a sense of inexorable dread as the native drum speeds up and the Emperor runs into one hallucination after another. All in all, a decent play, though I cannot give it five stars, since I really do not buy into the whole "Emperor" idea. It is the one thing O'Neill does not pull off.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Emperor's nightmare, April 7, 2003

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Emperor Jones: unabridged (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

"The Emperor Jones," by Eugene O'Neill, is a striking work by one of America's most significant dramatists. A bibliographic note in the Dover edition states that the play was first performed in 1920 and published in 1921. It's a one-act play in 8 scenes.

The play tells the story of Rufus Jones, a former Pullman porter who has become the monarch of a West Indian island. But as the play opens there is trouble in his empire.

This is a surreal, nightmarish character study, full of violent and disturbing images. There is some biting dialogue, as well as an intriguing exploration of tension between Black Christianity and Black "heathen" religion.

Jones is a memorable figure, powerful and tragic. O'Neill's stage directions are full of fascinating visual and audio touches--his mastery of the genre is quite evident. Ultimately, "Jones" is a haunting meditation on power, belief in the supernatural, and the seemingly inescapable pull of history.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the stereotypes, a still-powerful play, October 2, 2004

By 

D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Emperor Jones: unabridged (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

"Emperor Jones" is a significant entry in American theater history for a number of reasons. With its dreamlike sequences featuring scenes built entirely around monologues, the play is O'Neill's first foray into experimental theater, it was the first Broadway play featuring an African-American in the lead role, and it became a 1933 film featuring Paul Robeson. And when the New York Drama League initially refused to invite Gilpin to its annual awards dinner, O'Neill led a successful protest.

The story is simple: a Pullman porter, after a conviction for murder, escapes to a Caribbean island and becomes the ruler of the natives. Once the natives grow restless, the Emperor Jones takes flight through a haunted forest, only to be confronted by the ghosts of his own past (his murder victim, prison guard) and of African American history (slavery). Through each of the six middle scenes, which would be a challenge for any actor, we see Jones deteriorating mentally and physically. It all seems entirely implausible, but this short drama is not an exercise in naturalism; instead it is a dark fable prefiguring a later tradition of magic realism.

In spite of its place in African American cultural history, however, both the stage directions and the dialogue (as A. R. Gurney points out in another edition of this book) "seems nowadays to be badly stereotyped." This is somewhat of an understatement. In addition to the "Heart of Darkness"-inspired drumming of the natives and the monologues of the fleeing, scared-witless "emperor," O'Neill includes stage directions that make the reader wince, as when he describes the chief of the native soldiers is "a heavy-set, ape-faced old savage of the extreme African type, dressed only in a loin cloth."

These uncomfortable representations are set off only slightly by the play's only white character, who is a two-faced and greedy manipulator of the situation. Once you get past these considerable faults, typical of the societal attitudes of yesteryear, the play's power and originality are impressive.