August Strindberg : the spirit of revolt : studies and impressions . mu-lated experience of the past. Every playwhich depicts yesterdays customs, manners,costumes, conflicts of thought and moralityis historical/ and artistic exegesis alonecan make real to us that which is absent fromschool treatises, statistics and blue-books. The series of plays which have beendesignated as symbolical, transcendental,mystical and mad—according to the mentaloutlook of the reader—bring us nearest to thereal Strindberg, to the essential in his im-aginative art which, though illusive and oftencompletely submerged
August Strindberg : the spirit of revolt : studies and impressions . mu-lated experience of the past. Every playwhich depicts yesterdays customs, manners,costumes, conflicts of thought and moralityis historical/ and artistic exegesis alonecan make real to us that which is absent fromschool treatises, statistics and blue-books. The series of plays which have beendesignated as symbolical, transcendental,mystical and mad—according to the mentaloutlook of the reader—bring us nearest to thereal Strindberg, to the essential in his im-aginative art which, though illusive and oftencompletely submerged, yet stands forth asthe structure of his life. To this series belongTo Damascus, I and II (1898), Advent (1899),The Dance of Death, I and II (1901), Easter (1901) , The Crown Bride (1902), Swanwhite (1902) , The Dream Play (1902), The GreatHighway (1909). In these plays we have theeternal questions of the human mind, the joysof illusion, the sorrows of knowledge, thefruits of sin and hatred, the rise through painand suffering, the souls battle with relentless. THE THEATRE OF LIFE 305 fate, the awful mystery of existence, and theultimate hope of something better to come,cast into the weird and haunting shapes ofthe people of Strindbergs inner world ; thesouls that are at once real and unreal, madand sane, acting in the solid world of matter,and held in shadowy bondage by the mists ofdreamland. Here we meet them all, the soulsthat have gone by, that are here around us,that are yet to come. They meet us withtears and smiles, with lies and truth, withvirtue and vice, pathetic and repulsive, lov-able and loathsome—humanity. Strindberg suggests the souls corruptionand the souls ineffable sweetness with thesame impassioned power of creation. InSwanwhite, the charming fairy play in whichthe influence of Maeterlinck is discernible,the budding love between a fairy-like princessand a chivalrous prince is described with adelicacy which brings the reader into a landof romance and ros
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidauguststrind, bookyear1913
