The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill ed. by Michael Manheim (review)

Book Reviews by it (156). And my hackles were raised by the use of the word "situationalism " to describe the Situationist International movement ('70). Notes are conveniently placed at the end of each chapter, and there is a helpful index. The bibliography is nicely organized, but the "Books on Theatre " section is skimpy. For all the talk of Brechtian influence, not a single Brecht title is listed - not even "A Short Organum for the Theatre," from which the author quotes. I am puzzled, too, by the format of the two appendices . Appendix A is a list of history plays produced each year from 1959 through 1997. This is lovely; we should have appendices like this more often. In Appendix B the plays, along with their dates of first performance, are organized by venue. Why not combine the two by adding the venues and opening dates to the information in Appendix A? Minor shortcomings aside, The Contemporary British History Play is an efficient and thoughtful treatment of the many uses post-war playwrights have made of history. Palmer's solution to the problem of defining the genre is quite satisfying; it is good to get beyond that silly debate and on to more substantial matters. Finally, since even seasoned scholars are likely to encounter playwrights new to them here, perhaps some less visible writers will receive critical attention. L10RAH A NN E GO LO MB . NEW YORK MICHAEL MANHEtM, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Eugene 0'Neill. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xviii + 256. $59.95; $19.95, paperback. Michael Manheim's collection of essays is a major contribution to O'Neill studies, equal in importance to other important monographs published in the nineties, such as Joel Pfister's Staging Depth: Ellgene 0'Neill and the Politics of Psychological Discourse, Kurt Eisen's The Inner Strength of Opposites: 0'Neill's Novelistic Drama and the Melodramatic Imagination, and Normand Berlin's 0'Neill's Shakespeare. The Cambridge Companion to Eugene O'Neill is particularly welcome because it offers a balanced and synthetic overview of O'Neill 's dramaturgy at a time when, after more than fifty years of criticism about the playwright's work, it becomes virtually impossible for anyone to assimilate the bulk of previous scholarship. The first cluster of articles, comprising perceptive studies by Stephen Black, Egil Tornqvist, and Daniel Watermeier, deals with the biographical , literary, and theatrical influences that shaped O'Neill's artistry. The second group of essays focuses on the O'Neill canon in chronological order: Margaret Ranald deals with the early plays, James A. Robinson with the middle years, and Normand Berlin with the late masterpieces. While Berlin's essay pre- BOOK REVIEWS senlS enough evidence to suggest that O'Neill is indeed one of the masters of modem drama, Robinson's and Ranald's anicles offer useful reappraisals ofthe complexity of two neglected periods - sometimes unjustifiably so - in the playwright 's career. All of the above-mentioned anicles will secure useful information for the newcomer to O'Neill studies while simultaneously revealing new insights for the O'Neill scholar. Funher, Ronald Wainscott's and Kun Eisen's contributions can be coupled: they examine the relationship between O'Neill's texIS, the stage, and the screen, from both theoretical and historical perspectives .The final clusterofessays gathers specialized analyses ofO'Neill's plays: Brenda Murphy offers a provocative reading of Strange Interlude from a historical and cultural viewpoint; Edward L. Shaughnessy subtly reconsiders O'Neill's reliance on African American and Irish American stereotypes; Judith E. Barlow makes clear that O'Neill's ambivalent ponrayal of women found its source in his own adherence to the values of patriarchal society; Donald Gallup provides a fascinating overview of his transcription of the uncompleted scenar~ ios and drafts ofO'Neill's projected historical cycle "A Tale of Possessors SelfDispossessed "; Jean Chothia persuasively argues that O'Neill's plays paradoxically reach a climax of "sincerity" when they are thoroughly steeped in literature rather than in life itself. The final contributions ofthe collection concentrate on O'Neill's position in the American dramatic tradition. Michael Manheim's essay on Long Day's Journey into Night points out that the...