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This latest book from veteran O’Neillian Edward L. Shaughnessy examines the influence of the Irish playwright’s Catholic heritage on his moral imagination. Critics, due to O'Neill's early renunciation of faith at age 15, have mostly overlooked this presence in his work. While Shaughnessy makes no attempt to reclaim him for Catholicism, he uncovers evidence that O'Neill retained the imprint of his Irish Catholic upbringing and acculturation in his work.
Shaughnessy discusses several key plays from the O’Neill cannon, such as Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, and Mourning Becomes Electra, as well as the lesser-known Ile and Days Without End.
Winner of the Irish in America Manuscript competition, Down the Days and Down the Nights: Eugene O’Neill’s Catholic Sensibility is a compelling investigation into the psyche of one of the most brilliant, internationally honored playwrights of our time.
“Shaughnessy carefully examines the impact of O’Neill’s enduring Catholic mindset on specific plays and, in doing so, enriches our understanding of these works. He puts in perspective as never before the tension between O’Neill’s despair and his desire to believe. Edward Shaughnessy’s achievement is to give us an eloquent, insightful, sympathetic perspective on O’Neill’s relationship to the Catholic faith that is utterly free of academic polemicizing or sectarian axe-grinding. This is a book that will be of enduring interest to readers and scholars of O’Neill, to students of the theater, and to pilgrim souls of every kind.” —Commonweal
Edward L. Shaughnessy, Edna R. Cooper Professor of English Emeritus at Butler University, is the author of many articles that focus on issues of O’Neill’s cultural and family background. He is the author of Eugene O’Neill in Ireland: The Critical Reception Greenwood Press, 1988).