4.5 ( )

#555 in our old book database. Not rated.

It's good at first, but by Act 3 all the themes have been developed and the rest of the play is simply digging in further to the already-established ruts.

This might be a play that really suffers in the reading as opposed to the performance. ( )

$15. Softcover Later Printing Drama; In this play, written in 1940 and released in 1956 after his death, Eugene O'Neil turns to the loneliest and most entangled of subjects. (176 Pgs.) Covers and book very good.

4/20/22

Ahhh. Quite the excellent read. I love the way O'Neal develops this--how we slowly but surely grow accustomed to the alcoholism, the morphine addiction, the yelling and the crying and the arguing, as if we ourselves are slowly trying to tolerate this family's horribly tragic flaws. ( )

Could easily go 5 stars. Don't feel I can offer anything that any of thousands before me have not. Powerful, dark, and I think it must be true that there is something familiar for each of us, here. I wonder whether that is uniquely American, or simply part of the human condition? Took me a lifetime to get to this and surprised, given my background in American Lit. ( )

One of the great plays ever. I wonder why it is that the US had some great dramatists in the twentieth century and yet their novelists are generally best forgotten? ( )

I am not an O'Neill fan, but his writing is so smooth and seamless to read. Pleasurable, even though the subject matter is so dark and desperate. A washed up miserly alcoholic actor who loves his dope fiend wife, with a drunken lout of an older don and a consumptive younger son. The family loved and hates eachother for what thry are. All hate Tyrone's miserly ways. Mary blsmes his cheapness for the death of a son years ago. The sons and Tyrone are in dispair as Mary sinks into her addiction. The youngest has tried to get away from the family, but has returned only to be struck with TB. This is basically a day in the life of a family thet wants to live, but is in such dark denial that every minute is a struggle to retain a shred of humanity. ( )

This play undid me. The four damaged Tyrones will be with me for a long time. ( )

One of my favorite plays of all time. Saw the production with Jason Robards, and also saw Olivier play Tyrone. The monologues and dialogue between the brothers and Tyrone--a marvel. ( )

Multi-media version ( )

Wow, what a depressing and dull read. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to actually sit there and watch this on a stage. I appreciate the style O'Neill brought with him when it came to details. That was really unusual and interesting. However, none of the characters were even somewhat likable and the story was so depressing. After reading this I am much more grateful for my family. We have our problems but nothing like this. I think it is worthwhile to take a look at this play because O'Neill's style is so different, but don't be surprised if you hate it. ( )

It had been so long that nothing could blow my mind the way this play did! And I regret putting it off for some time! Long Day's Journey into Night somehow reminded me of Salinger's Franny and Zooey, the picture of a family who hopelessly struggle to find their lost self. And the fact about these two works is that you won't find any sense in them, if you never shared the same kind of desperation. ( )

There is so much stage direction in this play that it was difficult to get into reading it. But the characters develop well and the story unfolds into a thought provoking situation. ( )

There is so much stage direction in this play that it was difficult to get into reading it. But the characters develop well and the story unfolds into a thought provoking situation. ( )

This autobiographical play takes place over one day in the life of the Tyrone family. The morning starts normally, but we quickly see that this is not a happy family. As the day progresses, the audience finds out just how dysfunctional they are.

Obviously this isn't a happy story, but it is very well written. O'Neill gives the audience just enough hints about what's really going on to keep us interested but not enough to give everything away too soon. ( )

An intense and heartbreaking iconic 20th Century American play that reads like a novel when taken with the meticulous stage directions. Autobiographical in nature, and meant to be released after the author's death, Long Day's Journey into Night shines a searing spotlight on addiction within a family of misfits. Dysfunctional doesn't start to describe these alternately repressed and emotionally brutal group. Grim, depressing, honest and brilliant. ( )

Amazing if depressing play about a dysfunctional family in the early part of the 20th century (to be exact, August 1912). Unlike some of the other O'Neill plays I have read, this one has extensive stage directions which are critical if you have never seen a performance. I have seen the film with Jason Robards and Katherine Hepburn years ago -- as I read, I could recall certain scenes vividly!

While nothing much actually happens during this play, the family is slowly laid bare. The weaknesses of each member is revealed during the course of the day (the play takes place on a single day) as well as the tangled combination of love, hate, anger and sorrow that each feels for the others. Despite its setting, there nothing dated about this play -- this could be a family struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism today. ( )

I have always enjoyed reading dramas but don't often select them when picking up a new book to begin. Prior to reading O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, I read another of his incredible dramas, Mourning Becomes Electra, and was reminded of what an enjoyable format plays can be. O'Neill never disappoints. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Yale University Press, 1955) begins with the perception that the Tyrone family is a typical American family spending time together at their summer cottage in Connecticut, but the reader quickly interprets that there is an underlying current of turmoil beneath this facade. Read full review at http://thekeytothegate.blogspot.com/2014/05/long-days-journey-into-night-by-euge... ( )

Again, don't remember exactly when I read this, but I did a lot of underlining. ( )

Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night is regarded as his finest work. First published by Yale University Press in 1956, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and has since sold more than one million copies. This edition, which includes a new foreword by Harold Bloom, coincides with a new production of the play starring Brian Dennehy, which opens in Chicago in January 2002 and in New York in April.rrThis work is interesting enough for its history. Completed in 1940, Long Day's Journey Into Night is an autobiographical play Eugene O'Neill wrote that--because of the highly personal writing about his family--was not to be released until 25 years after his death, which occurred in 1953. But since O'Neill's immediate family had died in the early 1920s, his wife allowed publication of the play in 1956. Besides the history alone, the play is fascinating in its own right. It tells of the "Tyrones"--a fictional name for what is clearly the O'Neills. Theirs is not a happy tale: The youngest son (Edmond) is sent to a sanitarium to recover from tuberculosis; he despises his father for sending him; his mother is wrecked by narcotics; and his older brother by drink. In real-life these factors conspired to turn O'Neill into who he was--a tormented individual and a brilliant playwright.

Peça autobiográfica sobre uma família mergulhada em vícios e negação. Brilhantemente escrito. ( )

Maybe the most intimate and autobiographical of O'Neill's plays, his mastery is as clear here as it is in his other work. In the space of a summer home and with a single family as not only the focus, but the only cast (aside from one servant), this work is both powerful and heartwrenching.

Tinged with both poetry and humor, this journey is worth reading for any mature reader. As always, O'Neill's style also makes his plays easier to read than many other dramas--this one, especially, since the cast is so small. Absolutely recommended. ( )

There’s of course no denying that this is a play with a massive impact on modern theatre, and that’s it’s very well crafted. But to me, reading it for, I think, the third or fourth time, it’s very nature as a portal work is also what stands in my way a bit. There are so many plays inspired by this one, not least in my native Sweden, where a number of classic stagings at the Royal Dramatic back in the day kind of created a course for the whole theatre climate. Psychological realism is (sadly) to this day dominant on our stages, and several of our biggest writers claim O’Neill as a big influence.

Which means I’ve seen and read more than my fair share of middle-class quartets falling to pieces as family secrets are revealed and turned into weapons. And much as I enjoy the elegance of O’Neills exposition and ability to give just enough information, and despite several moving moments, I can’t help but thinking “Oh, dad’s a drunk and mum’s a looney. How novel”. The legacy sitting heavily on the original, sadly.

So Eugene, it’s not you, it’s me. Let’s be friends anyway? ( )