The Hairy Ape - Couverture souple

Who would dare call Robert Smith (“Yank” to his shipmates) an Ape? Well, actually, a lot of people MIGHT—but Mildred Douglas, young, beautiful, and wealthy, DID—or, at least, he THINKS she did. Brought to the stokehold, at her own insistence, by the Second Engineer, she is repulsed by Yank’s behavior, his language, and his appearance. Busy shoveling coal into the furnace, he is unaware of her presence. The incident marks a turning point in Yank’s life. He is out for revenge. Ashore, he is out of his element—and out of control. Everywhere he looks, he sees the same disgust in the eyes of those he encounters him. “Yuh don't belong, get me!” he says to the world, “Look at me, why don't youse dare? I belong, dat's me!”

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair.