Book Description

Ghosts is Henrik Ibsen's haunting study of the lingering poison in a marriage based on a lie. It is presented by the Gate Theatre, London, in a new version by Amelia Bullmore, directed by Anna Mackmin, in January and February 2007.

Customer Reviews (7)

Absolutely fascinating
"Ghosts", while not as famous as Ibsen's "A Doll's House", is clearly an interesting piece of writing. Nobody denies that. It is an interesting book to analyze, it's a quick read, but very deep, and it leaves a very strong impression on you.

"Ghosts" is in a sense, like "A Doll's House", about something that while still frowned upon today, is much more acceptable. In "Ghosts" there is the theme of the "sins of fathers", and the father's sins are brought to light. Mrs. Alving has been keeping secrets for a very long time, and here is where, through her ghosts, she reveals them.

Well, perhaps it's not as simple as that. The plot is intriguing, the plot twists are surprising, and the ending is disturbingly good. Ibsen created a fascinating story and masterpiece when he wrote "Ghosts", and it's absolutely superb. I highly recommend reading this play to anyone, especially if you liked Ibsen's other works.

Note: I don't suggest buying this play alone in a book like this, though. You might as well buy a book with several of Ibsens plays for the same amount of money, and then you'll get "A Doll's House" too.

An emotional work - very poignant
Though Ibsen is a little bit dated, more so than his successor, Knut Hamsen, he is still one of the greatest minds to come out of Norway and is arguably the father of the modern drama - and also to some extent, the father of the modern novel.He initiated the style which was later taken up by Franz Kafka, Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer), Roman Payne (Crepuscule).Ghosts is a quick read.Dover Thrift Editions makes the price definitely worth it.A must-read once in your life.Highly recommended.

Seemingly simple, but complex study
I chose this book to read and analyse a couple of years ago. It seemed to have simple meaning, but the more I tried to analyse, the more outstanding I found the book, and far from simple.
Helen Alving is a widow and is keeping a secret. One day she tells her friend Manders and he's quite shocked. It all has to do with some money from her dead husband that she doesn't want her son to have. Oswald, her son, comes home from abroad with very sad news. He is ill, and there isn't a cure for him. When Mrs. Alving is told that it was most likely inherited, she tells her son the secret too, and that changes his view on his father. As the book goes on, the intriques grow bigger...
Ibsen is probably more known for his play "A Doll House", but this one is just as great. He was very critical of the society and most, if not all, of his books often has a somewhat hidden story where he debates social matters and also morals. He use symbols and mostly contrasts to give the play a certain atmosphare and meaning. I believe this is one of Ibsen's greatest plays and strongly recommend it to anyone.

Seemingly simple, but complex study
I chose this book to read and analyse a couple of years ago. It seemed to have simple meaning, but the more I tried to analyse, the more outstanding I found the book, and far from simple.
Helen Alving is a widow and is keeping a secret. One day she tells her friend Manders and he's quite shocked. It all has to do with some money from her dead husband that she doesn't want her son to have. Oswald, her son, comes home from abroad with very sad news. He is ill, and there isn't a cure for him. When Mrs. Alving is told that it was most likely inherited, she tells her son the secret too, and that changes his view on his father. As the book goes on, the intriques grow bigger...
Ibsen is probably more known for his play "A Doll House", but this one is just as great. He was very critical of the society and most, if not all, of his books often has a somewhat hidden story where he debates social matters and also morals. He use symbols and mostly contrasts to give the play a certain atmosphare and meaning. I believe this is one of Ibsen's greatest plays and strongly recommend it to anyone.

Ibsen's controversial attack on conventional morality
Although Henrik Ibsen is the first great modern dramatist, his play "Ghosts" ("Gengangere") bears a strong similarity to ancient Greek drama, where the "tragic flaw" of the protagonist lives on in his children. However, in this story the curse on the Alving family has a medical basis. Published in 1881 but not performed until the next year because of its controversial subject matter, "Ghosts" deals with the impact of congenital venereal disease on a family. "Ghosts" strongly reflects Ibsen's desire to attack hypocrisy and conventional morality and caused even more of a furor that his previous drama, "A Doll's House."

Helen Alving is building an orphanage as a memorial to her late husband and the night before the dedication she confesses to her old friend Parson Manders that her husband had been a "degenerate," and she is building the orphanage using her husband's "dirty" money so only her own money will pass on to her son, Oswald, who has just returned from living abroad. But then Oswald confesses he has a debilitating, incurable disease that the doctors believe was inherited. Even from beyond the grave, the "ghost" of Captain Alving ruins the life of his family. Mrs. Alving has to confess her husband's past to their son, destroying the young man's idealized view of his father. Knowing he is dying, Oswald wants to seduce the maid, Regina, so that when he enters the next stage of the disease she will give him poison. Oswald does not care that Regina is really his half-sister, and in the end it will be his mother's decision whether or not to give her son the poison when Oswald begins to have his attack.

The ending of the play constitutes a Rorschach test for the audience, with Ibsen refusing to let them off the hook. "Ghosts" is probably the Ibsen drama that relies most on symbolism, from the heavy use of light/dark imagery to the purifying aspects of fire, to the obvious symbolism of ghosts. Consequently, I think this makes "Ghosts" one of the easier plays by Ibsen for students to analyze. Final Argument: Reading Ibsen's plays in order has greater benefit than usual when reading the works of a single author. If you read "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "The Wild Duck," then you will see the playwright struggling to find a play that will reflect his deeply held beliefs and also find widespread critical and public acceptance. The relationship between each set of plays in the progression becomes insightful, as Ibsen either extends or reverses elements of the previous drama. For teachers of drama there might not be a better quartet of plays to study to show the growth of a major dramatist. ... Read more

Book Description
Taken from the highly acclaimed Oxford Ibsen, this collection of Ibsen's plays includes A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, and The Master Builder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Masterful Ibsen
Rather predictably, the first play offered here is "A Doll's House", the most famous of Ibsen's works. Strangely enough, this ended up NOT being my favorite of the four plays provided in this small collection, but I'll get to that in a moment. Next we have "Ghosts", "Hedda Gabler", and finally "The Master Builder".

"A Doll's House", 86 pages long, is also provided here with the alternate German ending. The ending was deemed so scandalous that Ibsen was forced to write up another ending, in which things go slightly differently. "A Doll's House", a play about a woman who rather does the unthinkable (in that time, at least) to help her husband and then once again to herself, is remarkably interesting. Ibsen plays are generally extremely fun to analyze, simply because there's always something there. Nobody would read dull plays, after all. The alternate ending provided is actually the most interesting part of all. It shows us what the impact of this play was on society at the time that it came out. Perhaps we find these things somewhat more "normal" (though they're actually not, and are still considered rather scandalous) and acceptable, so this ending really reminds us of WHY this play was so impressive and WHY Ibsen was such a strange character for his time. An intriguing play, though not my favorite.

No, that falls to "Ghosts". A play that once again touches on difficult subjects that are most intriguing, "Ghosts" chilled me from beginning to end. It was a more interesting play, overall, because it seemed to me more human. That's not to say that "A Doll's House" wasn't human (it definitely is), but there was something about "Ghosts" that touched me more than the other plays. At 73-pages and with fewer characters, "Ghosts" is an easier play to really read, and certainly an enjoyable one.

"Hedda Gabler" changes things a bit. The plot suddenly becomes a bit more interesting with a touch more mystery and intrigue. There are moments that positively creeped me out ("I'm burning your child") and moments where I just shivered. The ending is a bit more intense than in the previous plays, though less surprising. The play felt very different from "Ghosts" or "A Doll's House", though it was still clearly an Ibsen "morbid but interesting" play.

For me, "The Master Builder" is the odd play out. It's the one that, a. Bored me the most, b. Seemed to take the longest (though only barely longer than "A Doll's House, at 88 pages, and shorter than the 97-paged long "Hedda Gabler"), and c. Seemed the least realistic. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the ending wouldn't seem to work on stage. I felt like at some point Ibsen kind of forgot that he was writing a play and mentioned things that wouldn't really work (unless they have a complex blue screen, but those didn't exist in his time...). There are ways around it, certainly, and it's a minor flaw, but I found that "The Master Building" just didn't have that spark that the other plays seemed to have. No, it's not a BAD play, but it's not my favorite among these either.

While there are many options out there for buying Ibsen plays, this one is certainly a good buy. While the Signet edition also gives us four plays for a few dollars cheaper, instead of the incredible "Ghosts", we get the reasonable "The Wild Duck". For those few dollars, I'd opt for "Ghosts". Also, the book type itself is better in this edition as opposed to the Signet Classics one.

Highly recommended to anyone interesting in a good play to analyze and enjoy. Enjoy!

old but still good
it was an older book, but it was in good shape. good plays too.

A translation to beat all others
James McFarlane's and Jens Arup's translations of Ibsen have long been classics and are arguably the best.Although they were published in England almost forty years ago, they still sound remarkably fresh and will be in print for many years to come.

In "A Doll's House" (1879), Ibsen casts us into the world of Nora Helmer, a young Norwegian housewife and Nordic Madame Bovary.Highlighting the restricted position of women in male-dominated society, the play sparked such an uproar in Scandinavia when it appeared that "many a social invitation during that winter bore the words: 'You are requested not to mention Ibsen's Doll's House!'"In fact, Hedwig Niemann-Raabe, the actress who was to play Nora on tour in Germany, was so appalled at the ending of this play -- at this female "monster" -- that she demanded Ibsen write an alternative one in German, which he did (a "barbaric outrage", in his words).McFarlane has appended this German-language ending (and a translation in English).

Based on the theme, "The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children," "Ghosts" (1881) is one of Ibsen's most riveting plays.Like "A Doll's House", it, too, was denounced on its début ("crapulous stuff", "an open drain", one London reviewer called it -- certainly a Victorian exaggeration).As in most of his plays, Ibsen probes the hypocrisies of patriarchal society, which he deems to be rotten at its core, and stultifying provincial life ("Doesn't the sun ever shine here?").Typically, he also casts women in a favorable light.

"A Doll's House" and "Ghosts" established Ibsen's reputation as one of the finest playwrights in Europe, but his next two plays -- "Hedda Gabler" (1890) and "The Master Builder" (1892) -- gave him undisputed international fame.As McFarlane points out, the 1890s "were the years when the publication of a new Ibsen play sent profound cultural reverberations throughout Europe and the world.""Hedda Gabler" marks Ibsen's shift away from highly controversial dramas primarily concerned with social and sexual injustice to "domestic" plays that addressed the struggle of individuals to control each other, people who "want to control the world, but cannot control [themselves].""Hedda Gabler" is a thoroughly electrifying drama about a married woman's devouring sense of decay and confinement."The Master Builder", which Ibsen coupled with "Hedda Gabler", is his riveting look into sexual potency and the domination of youth by age.

These plays are not as dark and dirty as they might seem.Whatever reviewers may have said about them when they came out and whatever gloomy stuff psychiatrists have written about them since, if you're at all familiar with prime-time television, they won't offend you -- in fact, you probably wont even lift an eyebrow.Still, I found myself glued to them for hours and I've read them before.Find a copy for your shelf!

Four classic plays from Ibsen
Actually, I've only read two of these plays before but I did
want to list the names of the four included in this volume:

A Doll's House;
Ghosts;
Hedda Gabler;
The Master Builder.

Masterful social drama (to sound like a back-of-the-book blurb).
Seriously though, Ibsen's plays are wonderful. ... Read more

Book Description
Here, in a single volume, are four major plays by the first modern playwright, Henrick Ibsen. Ghosts -the startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity. The Wild Duck -- A poignant drama of lost illusions. An Enemy Of The People -- Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion.  And A Doll's House -- the play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines -- and one of the most famous exists -- in the literature of the stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Four Ibsen plays constituting a marvelous case study
Henrik Ibsen's creation of "modern theater" makes him one of the most influential playwrights, along with William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett, in the history of drama.This unique collection of the four plays he wrote between 1879 and 1884 provides teachers of drama/literature with an opportunity to look at a major writer trying to develop his craft.Ibsen is concerned with social criticism and each of these plays reflects his change in perspective as he tries to write a drama that will be both socially relevant and commercially successful.You have to remember the time and place that considered it shocking for Nora to leave her husband or for Mrs. Alving to consider euthenasia for her son.By turning to "comedy" (of a sort) in "An Enemy of the People," Ibsen found a way of making his point in a manner more acceptable to his audiences.By looking at not only the plays but how each was received by the public, teachers/students can better appreciate what Ibsen was trying to do with each successive play.

For all four of these plays the notion of responsibility is primary.In "A Doll's House" Nora Helmer decides to leave her husband because he is unworthy of her love.In "Ghosts," Mrs. Alving has to decide whether she should give her diseased son poison as a mercy killing.In "An Enemy of the People," Dr. Stockmann decides to stay and fight to have the infected baths repaired even after the town ostracizes him.Finally, in "The Wild Duck" the idealist Gregers Werle comes home and destroys a family by insisting the truth be told.A classroom set of this particular volume is relatively inexpensive and provides an excellent case study of the growth of a major writer.Students do not often get the opportunity to read several works by the same writer.Shakespeare is the exception to this rule, but usually students are exposed to different types of plays (comedy, tragedy, history) rather than to a series of consecutively written plays.

realism in dramatic literature
henrik ibsen has perfected the realist movement in theatre.he has accomplished what so few have:to maintain the realistic effect, without succumbing to the tediousness of every day life.his plays ring true for the common man, yet not in a pedestrian manner that becomes boring.in myopinion, he far surpasses any other playwright in the realist movement,including chekhov.

Realism
So much in reading Ibsen depends upon the translation of these great works. These four plays of Ibsen's so-called "realistic period" revolve around social issues of his day which plague us 100 years later. Dowe ever learn from such literary wake-up calls? Although the dramatictensions here, which could have easily have been 20th Century tensions,rumble through these plays, the translations here are wordy and dated, thusmaking the plays sound overly melodramatic and at times downright silly.Still, everyone should read -- and discuss -- Ibsen's plays for theiruneasy questions regarding universal social problems: money, privacy,freedom to act, government corruption, unchecked journalism, and the moraland physical diseases which only seem to wear a new face each year. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

How does a shy person fulfill artistic destiny?
Ferguson relates in his preface that he is an Englishman with a Norwegian wife.In the 1980's he lived in Norway and he speaks the language.He was asked by the BBC to translate and adapt some of the plays. I have read Michael Meyer's biography of Ibsen more than once, and I deem this to be a worthy enhancement of our understanding of Ibsen.

Ibsen chose voluntary exile for most of his writing life.In 1336 Norway became part of Denmark.In 1814 Sweden took over as a colonial power.When Ibsen was growing up there was a desire to establish a homegrown theater.The nationalist urge culminated in King Hakon VII ascending to the throne in 1905.Popular perceptions of Norway as gloomy are based upon the art of Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Munch.The Norwegian langauge was in a constant state of flux during Ibsens's life as a consequence of nationalism.

Henrik was born in 1828.His father was amusing but unsuccessful in his enterprises and his mother was self-sacrificing.Henrik was the oldest.He was shy, gloomy, solitary, and bright.He liked to play with a little play theater and as a boy of about twelve put on puppet shows.When his schooling ended he went to work in Grimstad as the apprentice of an apothecary.His solitary ways made him an object of suspicion.He had an illegitimate son, a matter of guilt and shame.

After five years he moved to employment at a different dispensary which became a meeting place for intellectually involved youth.He wrote a verse drama in 1849.For the next decade or more he was involved in theater management and direction in Bergen and in Kristiania, (Oslo).He was married in 1858 and a son was born in 1859.

Ibsen spent many years away from Norway living in Italy and in Germany.After 1876 Ibsen wrote modern works for a cast of chamber players.HEDDA GABLER is one of the plays that easily retains its modernity. His final play, WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN, can be taken as an allegory of the lives of Ibsen and his wife, Suzannah.Henrik Ibsen died in 1906.Ferguson's discussions of the plays in the context of the life of Ibsen is very fine. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Worth finding
I somehow doubt this book will suddenly pop up brand-new again, but if it does? Go for it.

Most editions of Ibsen plays don't give much. Three plays if the publisher's enjoying ripping people off, and generally four. Barnes and Noble Classics, which are a pretty good, provide us with perfection in the form of a book - six of Ibsen's most popular and important plays.

A person really need not go much further. This has the plays people like to read ("Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's House"), as well as one of my favorites ("Ghosts"), and another Ibsen classic, "Peer Gynt". It's not slim, but it was once a grand deal, and perhaps a bit more enthusiasm will encourage it to become an incredible deal once again. If only... ... Read more

Book Description
The greatest works by the father of modern theater

Brilliantly exemplifying his landmark contribution to the theater, A Doll House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, and The Master Builder are truly the greatest and best known works of Henrik Ibsen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Compelling classics
I had to read A Doll House and the Wild Duck for one of my classes, and this was the edition recommended to us by the professor. I was so caught up in Ibsen that I went back and read Hedda Gabler and Master Builder in my spare time, and was not disappointed.

For those who are not familar with Ibsen, his plays are studies of human interaction and psychology, and this collection slants towards the tragic (meaning that it's not quite over until someone dies). There's certain patterns readers will notice, how characters lives are inter-connected by past secrets or relations they haven't been quite honest about, and how a character's unfulfilled life is linked to past actions and someone else's meddling hand. But it's all very compelling, and once you've gotten the names straight and how everyone is related to each other, you're sucked into the drama of these lives.

Of course if you don't like your modern drama depressing then this might not be for you. But any serious playwright/drama student needs to read Ibsen, and this is a fine place to start.

Engrossing!
Ibsen is one of the most important playwrights to ever grace this earth, and it is not difficult to see why after reading this collection of plays. "The Doll House" is immediately fascinating, perhaps the easiest to understand out of this group of plays. It teaches the lesson that one must learn to stand on one's own, to carry out the cliché -- "to find oneself" -- but the lesson is not learned by the main character until the stage has been skillfully set in order to make the ending all the more compelling. The strongest play is perhaps "Hedda Gabler," whose upper class heroine, Hedda, is one of the most abstract and intriguing female characters ever written for a play. Devious and suffocating in her new middle class surroundings after marrying a rather dull man, her frustrations play out and alienate the other characters. The other characters are not merely accessories; they ARE the play when one juxtaposes them with Hedda. "The Wild Duck" is not as strong a play, and the dullest of the group, but is also worth a read. Overall, the collection is a quick and engrossing read.

Hedda Gabler
Hedda gabler is a tale of a woman in the victorian ages. She was recently married to a man who considered writing a book "The Brabant in the middle ages" an exiting topic. She is torn between the role she must portray and the role she wants. The play shows the fall from grace and the decline of Hedda Gablers power. It is a powerful play and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone who read the play and wants to help me with a staging essay.amieDicaprio@yahoo.com ... Read more

Book Description
A Doll's House is a play written in 1879 by Norweigian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This play, being Ibsen's most famous, is a required reading in many high schools and colleges around the world. Although the play was considered controversial when it was originally published, it's critical view of victorian marriage is now seen as being educational. This work is known for its unconventional ending, which ends in a discussion instead of an unraveling, which are common in most plays.Download Description
(SCENE. - A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another to the left leads to Helmer's study. Between the doors stands a piano. In the middle of the left-hand wall is a door, and beyond it a window. Near the window are a round table, arm-chairs and a small sofa. In the right-hand wall, at the farther end, another door; and on the same side, nearer the footlights, a stove, two easy chairs and a rocking-chair; between the stove and the door, a small table. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (70)

somaia n.A Doll's House
A Doll's House is an outstanding play that brings up many topics into question, topics such as gender roles, love in marriage, and self fulfillment vs. family duties and responsibility. I think that Nora's and Torvald's characters are excellently drawn out to show the extremes of what could go wrong in a seemingly normal and happy home in 19th century Europe. Gender roles, even though they have changed drastically over the century, have roots from the beginning of time that stick throughout the years. Roots such as that women are more likely to stay at home and men are more likely to be the ones to work; even though these days women and men are legally and socially equal. Nora's actions in the play were courageous and good intentioned, even though they went against her husband's wishes. I really liked how she was created to be so naive that she did not realize that she had no life of her own, but despite that naivete, she still understood that something was missing. Torvald, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that Nora was not living life as people should, but out of his selfishness, he let things be as they were; he enjoyed life that way. What I liked most about this play was Nora's decision to live and to learn and be her own person, even though that meant huge sacrifice on her part and that of her family's. Was she selfish in doing what she did? That question is hard to answer. Should one live for themselves or is that right gone once they have children? Usually, I would say that a mother's duty to her children comes before anything, even her own needs; but what made Nora's situation so difficult was that she was a child herself, she never had the choice to live her life, once she had the chance it's good that she took advantage of it. The play was definetely worth the time spent reading it.

A pleasant surprise!
This was quite an entertaining play! Very nice - I like it!In all seriousness, it's a fascinating story that revolves around the ideas of gender roles and the negativity that is associated with creating such distinctions in society. `Tis a well constructed (translated) piece, despite originating in Norway.

The characters within speak frequently and frankly, constantly interacting with one another. The simplicity with which this play is written is used to convey a broad message about how society is harsh towards those who do not live up to their associated gender roles. For example, Krogstad is seen by the other characters as a scroungy rogue, minus the charm, associated with being a divorced father of two.

While it may not be the sort of drama that can draw a sleazy crowd with a brief tagline or an action packed trailer, it entices it audience with realistically portrayed characters in a convincing setting with an invigorating premise. Oh, and it speaks for universal human efficacy.

Functional edition of _A Doll's House_
First, the content -- Ibsen's play is as powerful and -- perhaps surprisingly -- as relevant as ever in today's supposedly more gender-equalized culture. Nora Helmer's predicament as a woman who faces the seemingly impossible choice between self-development and family is treated in a masterful way by Ibsen, who in the process manages to work in connections between bourgeois domestic culture, money, and spirituality.

But this edition is very functional -- no notes and a brief intro only. Ihave to say that I was a bit shocked because the new copy I ordered looked like it had been pulled out from the bottom of some old craters because it even had the faint impression of a sole on it!

Read it Aloud.

Ibsen's best known play about the strictures imposed on women by society.It may be from a hundred years ago, but the plight of Nora and her world is a cautionary tale about life now.

Nora is simple and yet there is a complexity about her.Her naiveté is both her charm and her undoing.Torvald, her husband, is prominent and she is to be showy--a living doll.Nora is to be a mirror that reflects her husband beautifully.

The plot concerns financial woes in the marriage--and secrets kept and broken--in these, the story is not unlike most stressful marriages.

We can speculate about what Nora could or should have done but the die is cast.

This play is good for helping younger readers understand that assumptions about roles in marriage are still there, and have to be understood and discussed in order to help a marriage thrive.

If you have a place where you can read this aloud, try it.Plays were meant to be spoken.The translation is superb.

Amazing!!
Wow. No matter how many times I read this play, it just keeps moving me. It always has something new in it, something brilliant and thought provoking. It's so crazy to my mind that this play was written in 1879 by a man. I mean, this is a serious slap in the face to a lot of the marriage conventions of that time period. I realize that to someone raised in today's culture, it's really nothing but we live in a completely different world. The Victorians took marriage very seriously. It was so shocking that the lead actress in Germany refused to play the part of Nora, unless Ibsen changed the ending
... Read more

Book Description

Four of the most popular and profound works from the playwright known as the "father of modern theater."

This Enriched Classic Edition includes:

&#149 A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

&#149 A chronology of the author's life and work

&#149 A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

&#149 An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

&#149 Detailed explanatory notes

&#149 Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

&#149 Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

&#149 A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

Series edited by Cynthia Brantley Johnson

... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Read
This was a pretty good book.I had to read it for my Approaches to Literature class, but actually found in easy and understandable.

Ibsen is Still Relevant
It is at least 50 years since I read these plays, but I have seen them performed during these years. I suggested "A Doll's House" to my book group because I believed that, though the play was written over 100 years ago, the subject matter would still be relevant. I was right. The women were so intrigued with the material, as well as the writing, that many of them went on to read the rest of the plays in the collection. The notes relating to the plays add to the interest and are enlightening. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Amazing collection, great translation, great extras...
There will not be a better collected edition of these plays in English translation.For both casual readers and scholars unable to read Ibsen in the original Norwegian, Rolf Fjelde's translation and supplementary materials make this volume unbeatable.

Fjelde presents Ibsen's major prose plays (which leaves out, of course, beauties like "Peer Gynt" but includes "A Doll House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "Hedda Gabler," among others) in fresh new translations, often altering standard misuses.He explains, for example, that traditional renderings of "Et dukkehjem" as "A Doll's House" warp its real meaning, which is simply "A Doll House."Pedantic as it may appear, this care is necessary, and evident throughout.

Even better are the almost 100 pages of extras: detailed introductions to each play, as well as minutely researched production histories.Who knew, for example, that "Ghosts" premiered not in Denmark or Norway but...Chicago, in 1882?The production notes and introduction to the volume tell a story we don't often hear about Ibsen, a tale of difficulties in Scandinavia, followed by years of exile and, ultimately, international acclaim.Reading the plays, which seem to have become more and more specifically Norwegian in setting and theme while Ibsen himself became more and more cosmopolitan, conjures memories of another exile who only ever wrote about home: James Joyce, not coincidentally one of Ibsen's greatest admirers.

For the price, you can't do better for English translations of these pieces--many of which can't be found elsewhere--whether you're a scholar in need of the historical context Fjelde obligingly provides, or simply interested in plowing through some of the foundations of 20th century and contemporary drama.

A Nordic chill
These twelve plays, written in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Ibsen himself often referred to as a cycle. Each is complete in itself, but regarded together, they form a remarkable artistic achievement.

Theearlier works in the cycle achieved notoriety because of their themes,which were considered daring in those days. Nowadays, we can view theseworks with a greater objectivity. It is clear that Ibsen was stilldeveloping what was then a relatively new form - the realistic prose drama;and there are elements - e.g. the attempted blackmail and interceptedletter in "A Doll's House" - where we may still see remnants ofthe older type of melodrama from which Ibsen was attempting to break out.But they are very fine plays nonetheless, dealing with the individual'srelationship with the wider society. Ibsen always remained aware of theextent to which human characters are moulded by the society they inhabit,but from "Rosmersholm" onwards, he focussed more on thecharacters' inner lives. He also found ways of saying more with less: hislater plays are so concentrated, that not a word, not a gesture, isirrelevant.

Instead of re-using old myths, like Wagner or Joyce in theirfields, Ibsen creates myths of his own: the white horses of Rosmersholm,for example, or the Master Builder who had defied God, but who dares notclimb as high as he builds. A powerful poetic imagination is apparent inthese plays, filling them with images of unforgettable intensity. The lastplay, "When We Dead Awaken", appears in part to forsake therealistic drama that Ibsen had so painstakingly developed, and return tothe world of those earlier poetic masterpieces, "Brand" and"Peer Gynt".

"Hedda Gabler", "The MasterBuilder", "Little Eyolf", "John Gabriel Borkman" -these late plays are worthy to stand alongside the tragic masterpieces ofShakespeare or the Greeks. But a Nordic chill runs through them.

Thereare distinguished translations by, amongst others, Michael Meyer (Methuen),Una Ellis-Fermor and Peter Watts (Penguin), and here, usefully collected inone volume, by Rolf Fjelde. They all bring out different aspects of theseworks, and they are all eminently readable. (Having seen many of thesetranslations in various performances, they also work well on stage.) UntilI learn Norwegian to read these works in the original, these translationswill have pride of place on my shelves. ... Read more

Book Description
Ibsen ascended to the first ranks of European writers in the late nineteenth century and has remained there ever since. The Norton Critical Edition includes five major plays spanning Ibsen's long career in recent translations by Brian Johnston (Peer Gynt, The Wild Duck, and The Master Builder) and Brian Johnston and Rick Davis (A Doll House and Hedda Gabler). The translation of Peer Gynt appears for the first time in this Norton Critical Edition.

"Backgrounds" gives students an understanding of Ibsen's creative process with selections from his correspondence and other writings. Twenty-seven documents have been collected and arranged by play, with a section of autobiographical writings at the end.

Ibsen's plays continue to provoke diverse commentary. "Criticism" includes nineteen of the most important responses to Ibsen's work, among them essays by Bernard Shaw, Sandra Saari, E. M. Forster, Hugh Kenner, and Joan Templeton.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide. ... Read more

Book Description
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is the founder of modern theater, and his plays are performed all over the world. Yet in spite of his unquestioned status as a classic of the stage, Ibsen is often dismissed as a fuddy-duddy old realist, whose plays are of interest only because they remain the gateway to modern theater. In Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism , Toril Moi makes a powerful case not just for Ibsen's modernity, but for his modernism. Situating Ibsen in his cultural context, she shows how unexpected his rise to world fame was, and the extent of his influence on writers such Shaw, Wilde, and Joyce who were seeking to escape the shackles of Victorianism. Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism also rewrites nineteenth-century literary history; positioning Ibsen between visual art and philosophy, the book offers a critique of traditional theories of the opposition between realism and modernism. Modernism, Moi argues, arose from the ruins of idealism, the dominant aesthetic paradigm of the nineteenth century. She also shows why Ibsen still matters to us today, by focusing on two major themes-his explorations of women, men, and marriage and his clear-eyed chronicling of the tension between skepticism and the everyday. This radical new account places Ibsen in his rightful place alongside Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Manet as a founder of European modernism. ... Read more

Book Description
The translations, created through a fresh approach to theNorwegian original in tandem with a keen sense of Ibsen's theatricallityand playability, have all been tested and refined in productions atprofessional theaters.

The translators have paid particular attention to three aspects of Ibsen'stechnique: his wit and humor, his "supertext" - the web of rich allusionsand references that he weaves in and around his dialogue - and the boldtheatricallity of the plays. The result is an Ibsen that soundscontemporary without being slangy or colloquial - an Ibsen of strong ideasbut also living characters - and surprisingly different from the image ofthe cold, forbidding "scold of the North" that we often associate with thisgiant writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ibsen, by Rick Davis
This multi-volume set of Ibsen's work, edited and compiled by Chicago/Evanston author Rick Davis is a little masterpiece.

The new adaptations are marvelous, and Mr. Davis' commentaries show us how Ibsen isa master crafsperson, and how his work may be best contrasted withStrindberg -- who is anything but a master editor and foundation layer.

Ithink Mr. Davis shows us how important precision and planning can be to thewriting process.Therefore I think this book is a must have forscreenwriters, as well as fiction-writers -- not to mention playrights. ... Read more

Book Description
Taken from the Oxford Ibsen, this collection of Ibsen's plays includes An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, and Rosmersholm. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Three Wonderful Plays by the Master of Modern Drama
A professor of mine told me that AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is not a very good play, so I read it myself to find out...and I disagree with my professor!I think AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is a powerful play on the timeless theme of the individual's relation to society.The "mob scene" in Act IV is a particularly intense piece of dramatic writing that reminded me of the "trial scenes" in such later, American plays as THE CRUCIBLE and INHERIT THE WIND.Several years ago I saw an outstanding local production of THE CRUCIBLE; I would love to see AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE onstage as well.
THE WILD DUCK, however, is my favorite play by Ibsen; I definitely agree with those critics who say that it is his masterpiece.I have read it three or four times, and each time I am amazed at Ibsen's skill.The play is a painful, poignant exploration of lost innocence, embodied in the character of Hedvig, a young girl on the verge of womanhood. If I could see only one more Ibsen play onstage (I've already seen HEDDA GABLER and THE LADY FROM THE SEA), it would be THE WILD DUCK.In fact, I'd love to direct it myself someday!

An Enemy of the People is agonizingly brilliant.
While Ibsen's other two plays in this volume are great, neither can come close to the genius of, An Enemy of the People.Dr. Stockmann's battle for truth against the self-interested masses is perhaps the most agonizingly wonderful exploration into truth and individuality.Ibsen is a master. ... Read more

Book Description
In the history of modern theater Ibsen is one of the dominating figures. The sixteen chapters of this Companion explore his life and work. The plays are grouped and discussed chronologically; among the thematic topics are discussions of Ibsen's comedy, realism, lyric poetry and feminism. Substantial chapters account for Ibsen's influence on the international stage, including an interview with ex-RSC director John Barton and an essay by Arthur Miller exploring Ibsen's challenge to contemporary theater and film. Essential reference materials include a full chronology, list of works, and essays on twentieth-century criticism and further reading. ... Read more

Book Description
At the height of his career, the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen created a new drama of struggle between the inward needs of his characters and the demands of their social environments. In Michael Meyer's fluent, idiomatic translations, The Wild Duck and Hedda Gabler stand as masterpieces of naturalist drama. ... Read more

Product Description
[no date] Date is approximate. ... Read more