Miss Julie and the Stronger » (First Edition)

Frank McGuinness is the author of several plays, including Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, as well as many acclaimed translations and adaptations, including Electra and A Doll's House. He teaches at University College, Dublin, and lives in Dublin.

August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a Swedish dramatist, novelist, poet and essayist. His plays include The Father (1887), Miss Julie (1888), The Sronger (1890), Easter (1900), The Dance of Death (1900), A Dream Play (1902), and The Ghost Sonata (1907).

Frank McGuinness presents scintillating new versions of two of August Strindberg's plays — one a major work, the other less well known. Miss Julie is Strindberg's examination of power, sex, and class, set on a midsummer's eve in a nobleman's house and focusing on the shifting relationship between Miss Julie, the daughter of the house, and Jean, her father's manservant. The Stronger is a short play that explores the complex range of emotions felt by Madame X when she encounters Mademoiselle Y, her husband's former mistress, at a fashionable cafe. Calling Mademoiselle Y worn out and evil, Madame X says that the triumph of her marriage proves she is the stronger of the two — even though these words ring hollow, as she attempts to deceive only herself.