A Moon for the Misbegotten (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: following cast, ice pond, big drink, Jim Tyrone, Old Man, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The last play that Eugene O'Neill wrote, A Moon for the Misbegotten was never successful during his lifetime, but has since become recognized as one of his greatest theatrical achievements -- a unique blend of comedy, tragedy, autobiography and imagination.

"Everything about it is so tremendous that it reduces almost every other modern drama to virtual pettiness."

-- Richard Watts

"A beautiful play, possibly O'Neill's best....The free creative impulse is allowed more play here than in the directly autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night....Life is made on the wing rather than painstakingly remembered. It is an honest life and, for O'Neill, an unusually lyric one; the crafty, the damned and the forgiving breathe."

-- Walter Kerr -- Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The last play that Eugene O'Neill wrote, A Moon for the Misbegotten was never successful during his lifetime, but has since become recognized as one of his greatest theatrical achievements -- a unique blend of comedy, tragedy, autobiography and imagination.

"Everything about it is so tremendous that it reduces almost every other modern drama to virtual pettiness."

-- Richard Watts

"A beautiful play, possibly O'Neill's best....The free creative impulse is allowed more play here than in the directly autobiographical Long Day's Journey into Night....Life is made on the wing rather than painstakingly remembered. It is an honest life and, for O'Neill, an unusually lyric one; the crafty, the damned and the forgiving breathe."

-- Walter Kerr --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage International ed edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375725857
• ISBN-13: 978-0375725852
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,041,649 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RE: Discovery, August 19, 2000

By	"dramaturgency" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moon for the Misbegotten (Mass Market Paperback)

Sometimes plays are rediscovered after what seems to be utter failure, a valuable insight for all, I think. O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten was rejected by pre-Broadway audiences in Michigan and Ohio in the 1940s, effectively preventing the play from having a New York premiere during the author's lifetime. In each of the following two decades, attempts at New York productions failed. It took Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst to ignite the play for New York in the 1970s, under the direction of the legendary Jose Quintero.

O'Neill's playwriting career is oddly similar to that of Sam Shepard: He had an early series of realistic short plays, followed by a period of experiment, when he explored a variety of artistic impulses and writing styles. Eventually, he wrote a handful of plays, rooted in realism, sometimes autobiographical, which revealed, nevertheless, what he'd learned through experiment. In the best of these, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten, O'Neill built vehicles of immense emotional power with psychologically rich characters and fairly organic plots.

MOON revolves around the Irish-American earth mother, Josie Hogan, a tall, rough-hewn woman, who promotes a course image of herself to cover a fragile and vulnerable interior. The other two "imposters" of the play are her father, Phil Hogan, and the landlord of their tired Connecticut farm, James Tyrone (based on O'Neill's brother), a third-rate Broadway actor, who has drunk his life away, chasing loose women and acting a fool. Nevertheless, Josie secretly harbors feelings for him. The play hinges on what happens when her father, through a clever, inebriated deception, convinces her to blackmail Tyrone into selling them the farm rather than selling it to their rich, obnoxious neighbor (for a much higher price). The subterfuge leads to one of the most poignant love scenes in American dramatic literature, as Josie and Jim Tyrone discover that they know and understand the person beneath the mask better than they each thought, and it's still not enough to unite them.

O'Neill's original title for the play was The Moon Bore Twins. We can be grateful for the change, though the original title does carry a measure of insight with it, for Josie and Tyrone are, if not identical twins psychologically, at least inversions of the same chord-doomed to occupy separate, mutually exclusive worlds.

The play contains an amazing shift of tone from the first half to the last half. In act one and two we are treated to a rather comic display of Irish inflected patter between Josie, her father, and the rest of the five characters. In the last two acts, the tone becomes more serious and bittersweet, which may explain why it took so long for audiences to catch up with it. The play definitely catches the viewer or reader off guard ... wishing that these two ne'er-do-wells could save each other from the future they have each envisioned. O'Neill's revised title says a lot about the play, for Moon is not as dark as Long Day's Journey, nor as demanding as Iceman, but it is O'Neill deploying all his gifts as a dramatist, writing fully realized roles containing emotional power, wit, humor, and pathos. His language reflects people who are driven to speak to stay alive. No one is writing like this today, except perhaps August Wilson.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Poignant, March 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Moon for the Misbegotten (Mass Market Paperback)

A few weeks ago I eagerly ordered this play for I had plans to see Gabriel Byrne's performance as James Tyrone, Jr. in the current Broadway run of "A Moon for the Misbegotten." I very much enjoyed reading the book. I saw the play this weekend and was incredibly moved with how the actors brought this tale to life. Gabriel Byrne's performance was particularly awesome.

For those who are familiar with "A Long Day's Journey Into Night," this play follows up on the life of the eldest son/actor. I read somewhere that this was O'Neill eulogy to his real-life brother, who was the model for James Tyrone, Jr.

The play is about relationships, redemption, unconditional love, regrets, and hope. In a nutshell, the story is ecumenical. Other elements of the story that contributes to its overall tapestry is the sexual current between James and Josie, the story's heroine, and O'Neill's ability to balance much needed humor with pathos.

And for those who are interested in an introduction to O'Neill but are short on time, this particular play is a fast read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even though my Dad designed recent production,I LOVED IT!, October 10, 2000

By A Customer

I loved this play the first second i saw it on broadway. it gave me vibrations all over my body every time Cherry Jones said a line. It was an amazing story of true love and to give yourself over to someyone. And talking to Hope Davis made me cry after, because she said to me "I've never seen love so strong." I do hope you give Eugene O'Neill a chance and buy this amazing play. And try to see any production of his work being broadway or smaller productions. Thank you!