After some 3,000 pages, 50 plays and a short story, I have finally completed the three-volume work: O'Neill, Complete Plays. It has been a full 33 years since I first delved into O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night. Even after all this time, these two plays still shine brightly as masterpieces. I would also include A Moon for the Misbegotten among them, as it is a work that delves deeply into the basic human experience.

O'Neill's works have been widely reviewed, so I won't analyze each one separately. What I have gained from reading through these three volumes is an appreciation for the remarkable growth O'Neill achieved as a playwright. He began as a writer with somewhat weak story concepts, but a strong desire to create profound tales and a keen sense of an artistic approach to the theatre. As he evolved, each of these aspects transformed. His skills developed, and he began to write more from his deepest emotions and less from abstract ideas and ideals. Technique gave way to a more realistic portrayal. The three plays I mentioned, although still marked by the struggle of individuals to find their path in a somewhat nihilistic, Nietzschean world where failure often leads to death, ultimately center around human relationships. O'Neill seems to have finally come to believe that in a world otherwise lacking in meaning, people need one another. Without that connection, we are doomed not only to a life of meaninglessness but also to profound loneliness.

This journey through O'Neill's complete works has been a profound and enlightening experience, allowing me to see the evolution of a great playwright and gain a deeper understanding of the human condition.

It's been a while since I've delved into any of O'Neill's works - and boy, have I missed it. He was among the very first playwrights I explored of my own volition. There was just something about the blatantly literary essence of his plays that spoke directly to my teenage self. Now that I'm a bit older and wiser, my interest in O'Neill has evolved. I'm far more intrigued by him as a master craftsman. He was not only revolutionizing the dramatic form for an America that had been mostly exposed to Shakespeare.

This volume compiles his work from 1932 to 1943, which were the last pieces he penned before his health deteriorated to the point where he had to cease writing. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, making him the only American dramatist to receive such an honor. Interestingly, it was only after 1936 that he produced some of his finest works. It was as if the stability of a home and the acclaim (which seems almost paradoxical) combined with the awareness that the tremors in his hand were like a ticking time bomb, enabling him to reconnect with his younger self and pen those monumental autobiographical pieces.

However, his journey was far from straightforward. In between the success of "Ah, Wilderness!" and the scathing critical reception of "Days Without End," and those final, remarkable plays, he attempted an epic cycle. All that remains of it are "A Touch of the Poet" and the rather unwieldy "More Stately Mansions." It's fascinating to witness a writer grappling with his true capabilities, with the time he has to complete his works, and even seeing him stumble despite all the accolades.

I still have the first two volumes of his works waiting for me to explore!