August Strindberg
1) Married
Never one to shy away from incendiary topics or controversial stances, Swedish writer August Strindberg tackles a series of tough issues in the engaging short stories collected in Married. Strindberg's life-like characters grapple with and debate issues ranging from racial discrimination to the education of women.
Over the course of his remarkably varied literary career, Swedish writer August Strindberg produced plays, poetry, novels, essays, and memoirs. In the short stories collected in Fair Haven and Foul Strand, Strindberg's unparalleled skill as a creator of memorable characters shines through.
3) The Inferno
Swedish novelist and playwright August Strindberg led a tumultuous life defined by giddy heights and despairing depths. One of his most intense periods of depression resulted in profound psychological and existential distress that Strindberg later came to refer to as his "Inferno" crisis. In this gripping memoir, he recounts his spiritual turmoil and awakening, along with his experiments in the occult and black magic.
Swedish writer August Strindberg was a creative force of nature who produced significant works in a staggering array of fields, though he is best remembered around the world as an important innovator in the field of twentieth-century drama. Zones of the Spirit is an eclectic selection of Strindberg's thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that is sure to inspire.
Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg led a remarkable life, oscillating from periods of institutionalization to an intense study of the occult and then back to working his creative magic as a producer of some of the most indelibly original plays of the twentieth century. The Son of a Servant is a profoundly moving coming-of-age novel that draws heavily on the author's own life experiences.
6) The Red Room
Fans of well-honed satire will enjoy The Red Room, August Strindberg's no-holds-barred send-up of the pretensions of Swedish high society in the late nineteenth century. Earnest government worker Arvid Falk leaves his old life behind and tries to make a splash as a writer, but as he begins to spend more time with various elite and exclusive cliques, he becomes all the more disillusioned.
What starts out as an account of a humdrum administrative assignment is elevated to an existential examination of the meaning of life in Swedish author August Strindberg's novel On the Seaboard. A bureaucrat is sent to a remote island outpost with the task of educating the local fishermen about advances in fishing techniques, but he is unprepared for the pushback he receives from the staunchly traditional community.
Swedish polymath August Strindberg delivers a fascinating volume in Historical Miniatures. Just as the title implies, these are short vignettes drawn from history and presented in narrative form. You'll learn about day-to-day life in past eras—without the boredom and drudgery of dry textbook-style takes on history.
In his personal life, Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg placed great importance on personal development and progression, even if that process proved to be unbearably painful and disruptive. That value system is reflected throughout the novel The Growth of a Soul, a coming-of-age story in which the transition to a state of maturity and enlightenment extracts a significant cost.
Though remarkably creative, Swedish writer and artist August Strindberg had a very stormy personal life that was fraught with drama, controversy and scandal. In the 1890s, as his marriage to Finnish actress Siri von Essen was crumbling, Strindberg decided to air his side of the story in the guise of an autobiographical novel. The Confession of a Fool is a gritty, warts-and-all look at the demise of a marriage.
For readers who are familiar with Swedish writer August Strindberg's early, groundbreaking works for the stage, the dreamy magical realism of the short story collection In Midsummer Days will likely come as a surprise. These tales veer sharply away from the unflinching realism that came to be associated with Strindberg in the early twentieth century. Nonetheless, though they represent a dramatic shift in style, the tales in this collection
...Swedish playwright August Strindberg's early works ushered in a new era of gritty realism, but his later works strayed from this style as his personal interests began to veer toward mysticism and the occult. In There Are Crimes and Crimes, what starts out as a portrayal of a complicated love affair soon turns into something much more sinister.
Though Swedish author August Strindberg produced significant works in fields ranging from memoir to observations of the natural world, he is best remembered as a groundbreaking dramatist whose plays were far ahead of their time and helped to usher in a new era of literature. The five-act drama Lucky Pehr, set in the Middle Ages, highlights the true extent of Strindberg's envelope-pushing creative genius.
Swedish writer August Strinberg played a major role in introducing a more modernist sensibility into his native country's literature, producing several major novels and plays that are still regarded as some of the most significant works of twentieth-century Swedish literature. The Road to Damascus is a dramatic trilogy that broke new ground in stagecraft and characterization, touching on complex themes of spirituality and selfhood in the
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