The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Road to Damascus, by August Strindberg

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Title: The Road to Damascus
A Trilogy

Author: August Strindberg

Commentator: Gunnar Ollen

Translator: Esther Johanson and Graham Rawson

Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8875]
Posting Date: August 8, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS ***

Produced by Nicole Apostola

THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS

A TRILOGY

By August Strindberg

English Version By Graham Rawson

With An Introduction By Gunnar Ollen

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE

INTRODUCTION

Strindberg's great trilogy _The Road to Damascus_ presents many
mysteries to the uninitiated. Its peculiar changes of mood, its gallery
of half unreal characters, its bizarre episodes combine to make it a
bewilderingly rich but rather 'difficult' work. It cannot be recommended
to the lover of light drama or the seeker of momentary distraction. _The
Road to Damascus_ does not deal with the superficial strata of human
life, but probes into those depths where the problems of God, and death,
and eternity become terrifying realities.

Many authors have, of course, dealt with the profoundest problems
of humanity without, on that account, having been able to evoke our
interest. There may have been too much philosophy and too little art in
the presentation of the subject, too little reality and too much soaring
into the heights. That is not so with Strindberg's drama. It is a
trenchant settling of accounts between a complex and fascinating
individual--the author--and his past, and the realistic scenes have
often been transplanted in detail from his own changeful life.

In order fully to understand _The Road to Damascus_ it is therefore
essential to know at least the most important features of that
background of real life, out of which the drama has grown.

Parts I and II of the trilogy were written in 1898, while Part III was
added somewhat later, in the years 1900-1901. In 1898 Strindberg had
only half emerged from what was by far the severest of the many crises
through whic