A Witch by August Strindberg

This is the first English translation of Strindberg's dark novella about a young woman dissatisfied with her marriage and station in life. Drawn to the power of witches, she incurs the wrath of one and is branded as a witch, herself. Strindberg creates his own Madame Bovary, but more psychologically ambiguous and demonic than Flaubert's. Strindberg wrote A Witch at a particularly traumatic moment: the decision to divorce his wife "after ten years of happiness and misery." Believing his wife unfaithful, poisoned by sexual suspicion, and disgusted by his person and his genitals, he went to a brothel, accompanied by a physician who could certify the fertility of his semen and the size of his penis. A Witch presents a world of extreme anxiousness and frustration, where motives and identities change like quicksilver and order masks deep discontent and duplicity. Translated by Mary Sandbach.

Published by The Lapis Press, Venice, California, 1991, 140 pages, 10 1/4 in. x 7 1/4 in., hardcover 

ISBN: 0932499651