Apart from Miss Julie, the plays translated here are The Father, A Dream Play, The Ghost Sonata, Dance of Death. The Father is one of Strindberg's most powerful dramas - I still have vivid memories of Robert Shaw in the role of the nameless Captain - and The Dance of Death, while rather unpleasant, is another impressive work in what is usually called his naturalistic style. Miss Julie, though melodramatic in its conclusion and rather repellent in its overall tone, still has a claustrophobic intensity. The others fall more into the area of Expressionism, of which Strindberg was one of the earliest masters. These translations read well, which is a bonus since Strindberg seems to have suffered terribly at the hands of his early British and American admirers. Incidentally, Michael Meyer's admirable life of Strindberg is also on the Oxford lists and would make a good companion piece to this volume.
Brian Fallon