The Theater: Marriage Pit

THE NIGHT OF THE TRIBADES by Per Olov Enquist

If anyone had asked August Strindberg for his definition of hell, he would have given an implacable and desolated one-word answer—women. Or perhaps, wives.

Strindberg was involved in three disastrous marriages that nearly broke his ever precarious hold on sanity. Only his ability to transmute his inner torment into dramatic art saved him. His is a classic case of what Edmund Wilson called "the wound and the bow." From the suppurating wound of his domestic life, as un-healing as was the eagle-torn liver of Prometheus,...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!