Miss Julie [Paperback]

August Strindberg (Author), Richard Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2004

Miss Julie is Strindberg's masterpiece, written at the height of his powers as a dramatist. It treats sexuality and human struggle with a frank realism previously unknown in the theatre. This volume also includes Strindberg's Preface to the play.

Helen Cooper's taut, contemporary stage version, which premiered in London in 1990 at the Greenwich Theatre, 'is fiercely faithful to the play's transfixing contradictions' (Independent) and 'marvellously brisk and demotic' (Time Out).

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

He [Strindberg] is bold, this Swede. Never have I seen the aristocratism of serfs so lucidly portrayed. The idea of the play struck me forcibly, and the author s power awoke in me feelings of envy and surprise. --Maxim Gorky on MISS JULIE

I read MISS JULIE back in the eighties (or early nineties). I know it, but I read it now again with great pleasure... He is a remarkable writer. He has a quite unusual power. --Anton Chekhov

I was born too soon to be greatly influenced by him as a playwright, but he [Strindberg] is among the greatest of the great... [Though] I have a technical objection to making sexual infatuation a tragic theme [MISS JULIE]. Experience proves it is only effective in comic spirit. --George Bernard Shaw

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Swedish --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Play Pub (October 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881452041
• ISBN-13: 978-0881452044
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,704,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars comment to a previous reviewer, April 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Miss Julie (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

A previous reviewer ([e-mail]) commented that Miss Julie is a true story about Strindberg, his 16 yr. old lover and his wife Harriet. This is not entirely correct. It is based on one of his marriages - to his first wife Siri von Essen. He married Siri in 1877. Miss Julie was written in 1888 and was first put on stage in 1889 with Siri acting out the role of Julie. He divorced Siri in 1891 and did not meet Harriet (who was actually his third wife) until 1900. They married in 1901. Strindberg identifies with Jean in the play. Strindberg felt inferior to Siri (a Baroness). Jean was also inferior to Julie but he triumphed over her in the end.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miss Julie, January 10, 2000

By 

Andrew D. Eisenstein (Santa Cruz, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Julie (Paperback)

Definitely one of the better plays I have read in my survey of late 19th century European drama. While there are slight flaws in it, such as frequent mood swings by the characters, the overall writing is fabulous. Jean is a perfectly portrayed Machiavelli, doing what is necessary for him to succeed at whatever costs. Julie, on the other hand, wavers between the strong and self-confident seductress of the beginning, to the weak and manipulated wronged woman at the end. Definitely a cornerstone in the history of modern drama.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mistress and servant, October 3, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Miss Julie (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

"Miss Julie," by August Strindberg, is a play with three speaking parts: Miss Julie, a nobleman's daughter; Jean, a young valet; and Christine, a cook in the household. The Dover Thrift Edition version is translated by Edwin Bjorkman. A brief introductory note states that the play first appeared as a printed text in 1888, a year before its first staging.

The play's title character is bold and flirtatious; her behavior, unsurprisingly, leads to controversy. "Miss Julie" is a fascinating glimpse at a society that is rigidly ordered around class stratification, gender roles, and sexual conduct; the play looks at the consequences when people resist this rigid order. The play has some really startling, thought-provoking dialogue.

Recommended companion texts: "Hands Around," by Arthur Schnitzler; "Daisy Miler," by Henry James; and "Cuckoos," by Giuseppe Manfridi. Each of these three literary works shares at least one significant theme or motif in common with "Miss Julie."