Marco Millions
Author: O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone (1888-1953)
Year: 1927
Publisher: Boni & Liveright
Place: New York
Description:
xii-180+[epilogue]. Octavo (8 14" x 5 12") bound in original green boards with gilt lettering to spine and gilt facsimile signature to front cover and light green ruled edge. First edition.
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an Irish American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. Marco Millions is a tremendous satirical dramatization of the life and journeys of Marco Polo, the Venetian, written in O'Neil's poetical manner. Against a myriad of colorful, beautiful scenes laid in the great countries of the exotic East, Marco Polo travels toward romance that never touches him - for O'Neil sees him as a merchant, a Babbitt of his time, one who lets beauty and love slip through his fingers as so much discarded merchandise. Here is an intensely satirical and amusing play, with an undercurrent of something far more poignant and touching than mere satire.
Condition:
Small stain to back cover. Jacket chipped at corners and spine ends, some edge wear with a closed tear and creasing else a very good copy in like jacket.
Year: 1927
Publisher: Boni & Liveright
Place: New York
Description:
xii-180+[epilogue]. Octavo (8 14" x 5 12") bound in original green boards with gilt lettering to spine and gilt facsimile signature to front cover and light green ruled edge. First edition.
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an Irish American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. Marco Millions is a tremendous satirical dramatization of the life and journeys of Marco Polo, the Venetian, written in O'Neil's poetical manner. Against a myriad of colorful, beautiful scenes laid in the great countries of the exotic East, Marco Polo travels toward romance that never touches him - for O'Neil sees him as a merchant, a Babbitt of his time, one who lets beauty and love slip through his fingers as so much discarded merchandise. Here is an intensely satirical and amusing play, with an undercurrent of something far more poignant and touching than mere satire.
Condition:
Small stain to back cover. Jacket chipped at corners and spine ends, some edge wear with a closed tear and creasing else a very good copy in like jacket.
