If a single metaphor could speak for the career and life of Sweden's greatest playwright and author, it would be the following taken from one of his novels: "We were dancing on the edge of the volcano."
The volcano is August Strindberg's own married life with three wives, now peaceful and sublime, now harboring fire and catastrophe.
"Dance of Death," considered his greatest play, written exactly 100 years ago, is the ultimate comment on modern marriage written for the stage. Much of what we see in this play is autobiographical; and to give the playwright his due, he is as hard on himself as he is on the women in his life.