The Ghost Sonata

Generally considered one of milestones in the development of modern drama, August Strindberg's chamber play "The Ghost Sonata" (1907) has variously been hailed as the first expressionist, surrealist and absurdist drama. In this monograph of the play as text and as performance --the first of its kind--Egil Tornqvist examines, in four chapters, the source text, various translations of it into English, the stage versions of Max Reinhardt, Olof Molander and Ingmar Bergman, and select radio and TV adaptations. In two framing chapters the background and impact of the play are illuminated. Focusing on Bergman's 1973 production, the book in addition contains a rehearsal diary and a transcription of this production. It is concluded with an annotated list of select productions.

Gilda Joyce?s best friend, Wendy Choy, is chosen to participate in a piano competition in Oxford, England, so of course super-sleuth Gilda finds a way to go too. Once there, the grueling practice schedule takes a backseat to strange and spooky occurrences. There are foreboding tarot cards that keep appearing to the participants and ominous numbers etched in frosty windowpanes. But even more chilling are Wendy?s ghostly nightmares of a young boy?and the haunting melody she can?t shake out of her mind. Could there be a sinister connection to the piano competition? Gilda has a genuine haunting on her hands, and solving this one will take every ounce of psychic intuition she?s got!

Ghosts drift through Strindberg's haunted and haunting dreamscape where a student idealizes the inhabitants of a stylish Stockholm apartment building, only to discover that their lives, perhaps even life itself, may be a kind of hell from which salvation can only be achieved through suffering.

A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Ghost Sonata," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

Do you believe in ghosts? You will after reading these original short novels from four of today's best writers of the fantastic. Brian Lumley, a Grand Master of Horror and author of the popular Necroscope series, opens the collection with the tense "A Place of Waiting." The moors of Devon, England, are home to many ghosts, but none as fearsome as the red-eyed specter that refuses to accept his death. His only chance of release, however, comes at a terrible cost. Orson Scott Card puts a new spin on one of literature's most famous ghosts in "Hamlet's Father." What if the former King of Denmark was not killed by his treacherous brother for his crown, but by someone entirely unexpected as punishment for the darkest of crimes? Would his troubled son still seek revenge? The patrons of an Edinburgh tavern are introduced to a beverage with an unusual history in "The Haunted Single Malt" by Marvin Kaye, a clever and spooky story about ghost stories and the people who love them. Tanith Lee offers "Strindberg's Ghost Sonata," a chilling tale set in an alternate Russia. When a poor man is rescued from certain death by hospitable strangers, he discovers that he is not a guest in their haunted tenement building--he is a prisoner destined to become a sacrifice. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.