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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Written in 1892, later in Ibsen's life, "The Master Builder," or "Bygmester Solness," is a 3-act play that explores the conflicted thoughts and feelings of the hardened and powerful artist Halvard Solness. He is an older architect who painstakingly worked his way to professional distinction at the cost of his personal life. As he reflects on his career, Halvard is frustrated with his ambition and dreams of achieving genuine satisfaction in his life. At the same time, he fears being surpassed by a younger generation of talent, including by his own son, a younger member of the firm. A symbolic and semi-autobiographical play, "The Master Builder" portrays a creative man's confusion and downfall. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A somewhat obscure play that causes readers to think
This is a new more colloquial English translation of this famous play.
Halvard Solness is a well-respected master builder at the top of his profession. His success was due to a chance fire that destroyed his home and made it possible for him to build many new homes on the large land mass. However, the fire caused the death of his two children and left his wife unable to bear others. This mixture of good and bad luck gnaws at him.
Solness is convinced that people have a demon inside them that can control them and force them to do evil. He also believes that certain people, such as he, can summon other demons outside themselves to do their will. He knows that he wanted his house, inherited from his in-laws, to burn down so that he could show his skill by using the land to build many houses. He thinks that the demons obeyed his will and he is therefore responsible for what happened to his children and his wife.
It is difficult if not impossible to decide what Ibsen meant by the demons. Was he mocking a Christian belief, as he did in other plays? This interpretation fits well with Mrs. Solness thinking that the fire was a divine punishment for her sins, his notion that he deserves divine punishment, and the final outcome of the play. Or, was Ibsen describing a psychological guilt feeling? Or, perhaps Ibsen was portraying a man going insane because of his guilt feelings.
Solness is also concerned that his "luck" will change. He fears that a younger man will compete with him and pass him by. He uses all kinds of strategies to keep his employee Ragner from leaving him and starting his own business. He claims, deceitfully, that Ragner's work as a draughtsman is not good enough for him to take a job on his own and refuses to give him permission to accept a job where he can show his talent. He hires an attractive young girl who Ragner likes solely to keep Ragner from leaving his employ. Ironically, while he is fearful of young people, the young girl falls in love with him.
Then Hilda arrives. She says that Solness had kissed her several times when she was twelve or thirteen years old and promised her that he would give her a kingdom in ten years. She came, she says, because the ten years are up today. This young lady is also ironically seemingly fascinated with the builder who is deathly afraid of the young. Solness does not remember the kissing or the promise and Hilda may have imagined it. Her presence adds to the questions previously raised. Did she cause Solness to be punished? Was she sent by God? Is she insane?

3 and 1/2 Stars
The first two reviews state as fact that this is often called Ibsen's masterpiece, but that is far from the majority critical view, which rightly gives that exalted title to The Wild Duck, with Rosmersholm probably second. However, this is generally considered one of his best plays, though in my view it is the least good of his major works. Ibsen's genius is thankfully such that it still shines through and makes the play worth reading over a century later.

It certainly differs from most of his work, especially his best-known. A late drama, it is usually classified with mostly symbolic later works, in contrast to the "problem plays" that made his name by dealing with contemporary sociopolitical issues. The Master Builder may best be termed psychological and is a very interesting case study of a particular type - a Machiavellian schemer with a guilty conscience. The protagonist is Halvard Solness, a successful aging architect who has gotten his position by ruthlessly and selfishly holding back competition and by an astonishing string of luck he attributes to vaguely metaphysical forces. However, he is deadly certain his luck will soon end, and he fears the younger generation, which only increases his unscrupulous scheming. Worse, he is fully aware of how he has used and held back others and is thus tortured by a guilty conscience. Finally, he has a strange but overwhelming feeling of debt to his wife, whom he believes has suffered as he has gained - first through destruction of her family castle, the rebuilding of which made his career, and the death of their sons. The question of his sanity is present throughout, even to himself, and he often wonders how much, if at all, he is responsible for her trials. He begins to spiral out of control in an ever-widening series of deceits and manipulations, losing the loyalty of both long-time employees and his long-suffering wife, when Hilda, a vivacious young women he knew as a youth, returns. He unsurprisingly develops a great passion for her, and she becomes a double-edged influence - pushing him to literal heights of greatness and daring he had long ceased attempting but eventually driving him to ruin by making him overreach.

Ibsen's usual mastery of dramatic tension is present throughout, and he skillfully keeps suspense high though even less actual action happens than is usual in his plays. What primarily separates The Master Builder from most of Ibsen is the overwhelming sense of unreality, which stands in vivid contrast to the canon of an acknowledged realist master. The character of Hilda is particularly ambiguous; from her improbable entrance on a flimsy, near-unbelievable pretext, her speech and behavior are extremely unnatural. She is interesting because we never quite know what she will do, but the contrast with Ibsen's usual characters is off-putting. Her motivations are unclear, and her effect on others is also very unreal. One can get somewhat used to it, but the strangeness never really fades. We must of course assume this was intentional, though what Ibsen intends is a very open question. She might almost be taken as a dream or figment of Solness' imagination, but everyone notices her and takes her seriously even at her most bizarre. It may be best to see her as a personification of Solness' conscience - or, rather, his anti-conscience, as she pushes him to overcome his scruples. She can thus also easily be seen as a sort of evil Succubus tempter figure, exaggerating his worst qualities by flattering his vanity and soon leading to ruin. Above all, she is another in Ibsen's long line of fascinating, highly nuanced female characters, perhaps most closely resembling the similarly manipulative and ambiguous Hedda Gabler. Other elements are also distinctly unreal, including Solness' constant talk of trolls and demons, which he seems to believe in quite literally. This may be a sign of encroaching madness but is also Ibsen's way of discussing free will, which the play is far from endorsing as real. Some may find all this an exciting change from most of Ibsen; others may think it distracting and/or unevenly executed.

The critical crux is how to interpret the symbolism. Nearly everyone assumes the play is almost fully symbolic, though a few see it as purely psychological, but there are few real suggestions as to what the overarching symbols mean, much less agreement. The tower is an obvious phallic symbol, but there is clearly more to the drama than an old man's lust for a young flirt. Most critics have read the play biographically, seeing it as the mature Ibsen's uneasiness about his canonical position despite having attained great acclaim and fame, specifically his worries about younger writers. However, it certainly goes beyond this, raising issues of the artist's obligation to society vs. creative independence, capitalistic ethics, the artistic conscience, idealism vs. practicality, etc. The ending seems to condemn the darker side of these as leading to bitter doom but is probably the greatest weakness in pure story terms. Ibsen is rightfully known for highly effective, dramatic, and surprising endings, but this - pardon the pun - falls flat. It is predictable, arguably even inevitable; one could plausibly argue Ibsen meant just this, perhaps drawing on Greek tragedy, but it is ineffective, an anti-climax reinforcing already noted weaknesses. The Master Builder still has much to admire, and I would not put it past an enterprising director to bring out its latent genius, but this certainly does not rank with Ibsen's masterworks. I recommend it for fans, but those new to him should being with A Doll's House or The Wild Duck.

Wonderful.
Henrik Ibsen, The Master Builder (Theatre Arts Books, 1967)

Ibsen is considered one of the world's master playwrights from a reason, and The Master Builder, often considered his finest work, provides solid evidence as to why. Halvard Solness, an old and somewhat bitter master builder scared of being upstaged by the younger generation (in the persona of his assistant, Ragnar Brovik), gets a visit from Hilde Wangel. Wangel, barely out of her teens, saw Solness at the dedication of one of his chapels ten years ago, climbing the steeple to hang a wreath. She has idolized him since, considering him capable of almost anything, but she doesn't know Solness' big secret: he suffers from vertigo, and was as close to death that day as he'd ever been.

Given the time of its writing, when psychoanalysis was in its infancy, The Master Builder is a masterpiece of psychological depth. The characters seem a bit stilted and Victorian today, but Hilde Wangel stands out as a fantastic example of a deeply manipulative character, more impressive because her manipulation is born not of malice but of her naivete.

This is wonderful stuff. Highly recommended. ****

"One of these days the younger generation will come knocking at my door."
Written in 1892, when Ibsen was a mature playwright, this tension-filled play focuses on an older man's fear that he will be replaced by the younger generation before he has been able to reconcile his professional success with his personal sacrifices.Halvard Solness is a Master Builder who once built churches and towers but who now builds only houses.Arrogant, manipulative, and often paranoid, there is little he will not do to control outcomes.

When Hilde Wangel suddenly knocks on his door, the younger generation arrives.Exuberant and flirtatious, Hilde reminds Halvard that exactly ten years ago, when she was the twelve-year-old daughter of a client, he called her his little princess and promised to buy her a kingdom.Ingratiating herself with Halvard, Hilde listens as he reveals his accumulated guilt, his fear of godly retribution, and his simultaneous belief that he is one of the "special people" who can bring his desires to fruition through the summoning of demons, "called 'luck' by others."Hilde, believing she can free him creatively, urges the acrophobic Halvard to place a wreath at the top of the tower on the house he has built for his wife-a symbolic celebration of a new kind of life through Hilde, building castles in the air.

The characters, though full of passion, are not always realistic.Their psychological grounding seems uncertain, and their behavior does not seem to flow out of a sense of personal unity.Halvard believes that certain people can make direct connections with him and read his mind.He also believes that that his success has occurred because years ago he made a bargain with demons which resulted in the loss of everything he and his wife held dear-he is successful, but guilty.Though he has rejected religion, he is tormented by the need for retribution. Hilde, for her part, became obsessed with Halvard at the age of twelve, and she believes that now, after ten years, they can build castles together.

Ibsen's dark vision here seems to combine classical tragedy with a belief in the Nordic spirit world and in the newly evolving psychoscience of Freud.Often considered Ibsen's masterpiece, the play is powerful to watch, but eerie and unsettling--its pessimistic message equivocal--and one concludes the play not knowing how much free will Ibsen believes men really have and what kind of spirit world he thinks may control it. (5 stars for its period, 4 stars for its relevance to the present) n Mary Whipple
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A Doll's House is Henrik Ibsen's best-known play. This masterpiece created quite a stir when it was first released because of its feminist stance. Considered by many to be the first truly feminist play ever written. The play comes to a climax as Nora, the play's protagonist, rejects her marriage and her smothering life in a man's "dollhouse." Wonderfully written, a true classic. ... Read more

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Drawing on many years of teaching experience and crucial research work on naturalist theatre, Christopher Innes offers the best available introduction to Hedda Gabler and its cultural, literary and critical contexts. ... Read more

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The book may have numerous typos or missing text. It is not illustrated or indexed. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website. You can also preview the book there.Purchasers are also entitled to a trial membership in the publisher's book club where they can select from more than a million books for free.Original Publisher: W.H. Baker Publication date: 1908Subjects: Drama / General; Drama / Continental European; History / General; History / Europe / Scandinavia; Literary Criticism / European / Scandinavian; Literary Criticism / Drama; Poetry / General; Poetry / American / General; Travel / Europe / Scandinavia ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A New Version by Colin Teevan
I like this version a lot - it's full of energy, and very exciting to see in person, which I was lucky enough to do. But it's NOT the Peer Gynt you might be familiar with, or the one you want to pick up if you're looking for a more standard translation. While this one is true to the story and the characters, there's a lot of updating and a lot of language that might offend people who don't like the kinds of words you can't say on radio and TV. It's more of an interpretation than a translation.

If you want a more standard version, I like this one.

Not Ibsen's Version
This version of Peer Gynt should be avoided at all costs. It is a copy that was made with robotic page turners and character recognition software that was marginal. The book is full of misspellings and punctuation errors. If you've never read Ibsen's Peer Gynt, this text is very difficult to follow,

Peer Gynt
As strange as the music it inspired.

I love Ibsen's later style. He is one of the easiest of writers to read. I think Lady from the Sea is a better play and being a later work is written in the natural prose style that was perfected by Ibsen and changed play writing throughout the world. However, lovers of Ibsen should read the poetic form contained within Peer Gynt to gain a fuller impression of this wonderful author.

The Charm of a Trickster...
Peer Gynt is a piece of literature that, like Goethe's Faust Part II plays best on the stage of the imagination. It is too lengthy and costly to be performed on stage. Sometimes the first three acts are performed together, sometimes the last two acts are brought together to become a whole for a theatre production.

In terms of reading, this is a great fable piece. Peer is the Trickster with the mirror to his conscience. As a youth, he is Troll-like in his lusts, in his carousing. In his middle-age, he is Troll-like in his financial enterprises. At the end of his life, he is a folorn man, having given up possible true love to run around in search of his self. He is a fraud but we feel sympathy for him. He pursues life in search of distractions and power but ends up empty at the end, soon to be the vicim of the Button Moulder, soon to be nothing more than a button.

This work has many levels and open to numerous interpretations. Ideally, this is the book you read for a book club. There is nothing conventional about it. The conversations will be endless and the philosophy inspired, well, might be inspiring.

Difficult. Surreal.
Peer Gynt is a sort of folk tale character who we see go from being a young man to an old man and who gets in several different adventures. The play doesn't have much of a plot exactly. It starts of in a Norwegian village where Peer is a buffoonish character. He leaves the village, meets up with Trolls, gets in a shipwreck, wanders around the desert, and runs into the button moulder. All of this just happens, disconnectedly. He spends time in America also, but we aren't shown that.

There is a lot of talk about being your self, being authentic, etc. If the play has a theme, I am guessing that's it.

It's completely different from Ibsen's realistic works like An Enemy of the People or The Wild Duck. I'm more a fan of those works. Peer Gynt didn't really speak to me.

On a side note, in the movie Educating Rita, with Michael Caine, Rita takes a test where one of the questions was 'What are some of the difficulties in staging Peer Gynt?' A: It's long. It's not in prose. It has trolls and other fantastical creatures. It has a huge cast many of whom are only on stage very briefly. The main character goes from being a youth to a very old man. The settings vary from a Norwegian village to Egypt and the Sphinx. This is why it's rarely done on stage. ... Read more

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From Munich, on June 29, 1890, Ibsen wrote to the Swedish poet, Count Carl Soilsky: "Our intention has all along been to spend the summer in the Tyrol again.But circumstances are against our doing so.I am at present engaged upon a new dramatic work, which for several reasons has made very slow progress, and I do not leave Munich until I can take with me the completed first draft.There is little or no prospect of my being able to complete it in July. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

False Advertising - Not the Hughes Translation
This is not the recent translation of "Hedda Gabler" by Doug Hughes.It is an ancient translation by Edmund Gosse and William Archer.You can probably find the identical text in paperback for $1.

I've only had my Kindle since X-mas 2009 and this is already my third encounter with deceptively labeled translations of plays.I am stunned that Amazon/Kindle would allow such sloppiness.This is unprofessional and maddening.In one instance the preview showed the modern translation of a play I desired, but the purchased and downloaded e-book was archaic, obsolete trash.

If you get the wrong product do not hesitate to use Kindle's return policy.Make sure you let them know, by e-mail or on the phone, thatyou don't like being bamboozled. ... Read more

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Indulge Yourself with the best classics literature on Your PDA. Navigate easily to any play from Table of Contents or search for the words or phrases. Author's biography and free play in the trial version.

Customer Reviews (2)

Enjoy!
Works of Henrik Ibsen. Including Peer Gynt, A Doll's House, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Ibsen's great reputation is fully justified in this deep, complex, yet surprisingly accessible ebook. While there are many options out there for buying Ibsen plays, this one is certainly a good buy. Highly recommended to anyone interesting in a good play to analyze and enjoy.

Masterful Ibsen
Works of Henrik Ibsen. Including Peer Gynt, A Doll's House, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

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. I am impressed with this collection! ... Read more

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The four plays in this volume, written late in Ibsen's career as a dramatist, move away from his earlier preoccupation with people at odds with society to instead explore the inward struggle with their own thoughts, feelings and dreams. "The Master Builder" (1892) depicts a powerful man whose illusions collapse in the face of a young woman's courageous common sense. In "Rosmersholm" (1886), an idealist is forced to question his beliefs and confront terrible truths about the past, while "Little Eyolf" (1894) portrays a man's self-deception, which brings both tragic repercussions for his family and new hope for their future. And in "John Gabriel Borkman" (1896), a dying woman returns to reclaim the affections and loyalty of her nephew, resulting in a bitter struggle with her sister. ... Read more

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From Introduction:

"The winter of 1879-80 Ibsen spent in Munich, and the greater part of the summer of 1880 at Berchtesgaden. November 1880 saw him back in Rome, and he passed the summer of 1881 at Sorrento. There, fourteen years earlier, he had written the last acts of Peer Gynt; there he now wrote, or at any rate completed, Gengangere. It was published in December 1881, after he had returned to Rome. On December 22 he wrote to Ludwig Passarge, one of his German translators, "My new play has now appeared, and has occasioned a terrible uproar in the Scandinavian press; every day I receive letters and newspaper articles decrying or praising it.... I consider it utterly impossible that any German theatre will accept the play at present. I hardly believe that they will dare to play it in the Scandinavian countries for some time to come." How rightly he judged we shall see anon.

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Hedda Gabler returns, dissatisfied, from a long honeymoon. Bored by her aspiring academic husband, she foresees a life of tedious convention. And so, aided and abetted by her predatory confidante, Judge Brack, she begins to manipulate the fates of those around her to devastating effect. Brian Friel's new version of "Ibsen's Hedda Gabler" premiered at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in September 2008, to celebrate the theatre's birthday, eighty years after the Gate's inaugural production of "Ibsen's Peer Gynt". ... Read more

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Drama / Characters: 3 males, 4 females, 2 children

This epochal drama of marriage and the individual portrays a controlling husband Torvald Helmer and his wife Nora, a submissive young woman who, when their idealized homelife collapses, comes to the realization that she must finally close the door on her husband, children, and life in "a doll's house" in order to find and live as her true self. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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The Vikings of Helgeland - The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III. is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Henrik Ibsen is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Henrik Ibsen then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Probably the best Ibsen collection out there
This collection of Ibsen's final dozen prose plays is an important book not only for the
Ibsen fan, but for the budding playwright. Starting with PILLARS OF SOCIETY (1877) and
ending with WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN (1899) it's a comprehensive presentation of the mature
Ibsen, and how his art evolved in terms of style, and thematic content in his most productive
period. Starting with societal and general social concerns, and ending with the very personal
concerns of the mature artist, Ibsen touches on issues involving the human psyche, that would
be echoed in the work of Freud and Jung in the coming years, as well as provide the foundation
for much of modern drama.

Rolfe Fjelde stresses the importance of not merely cherry picking the famous plays, but reading
the complete cycle in order to appreciate the evolution of Ibsen's thought processes through his
work. He provides brilliant introductions to each play, and an appendix which details the history of
various productions of each play.

Deserves a place on every Playwright's shelf
Every aspiring playwright knows that to truly be well-versed in the history and language of theater, one must know the work of Henrik Ibsen. To be honest, until I took an introductory playwriting course, I had never heard of the man or his contributions to modern theater. In a short time, all of that changed. Since then I have been enamored by Ibsen's plays and have searched for a well-organized compilation of his greatest works. In short, this is that book.

Though it doesn't contain any of his lyrical work, such as Peer Gynt, this compilation, containing his twelve major prose plays, is an excellent achievement. Ibsen was a master of drama and desired that his reader or audience-member experience these prose plays in the order they were written. In this way, the work would be understood within its chronology and tell a greater story about the evolution of a playwright's mind. Reading the plays like this has been absolutely wonderful, and I am so grateful that Fjelde has done the work to compile his great translations into a single book. For anyone who speaks English and feels themselves to be a connoisseur of the theater, this book truly deserves its place on the shelf next to the complete works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Shaw.

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

Product Description
Some argue Ibsen reinvented theater. Examine his Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, When We Dead Awaken, and Peer Gynt.

This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School; preeminent literary critic of our time. Titles present the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature reflecting a variety of schools of criticism. Texts also contain critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index, and an introductory essay by Bloom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A superb introduction to one of the best playwrights
This is part of a large series of short books by Professor Bloom on dramatists, novelists, poets, and short story writers. This volume contains an introduction by Bloom, a biography of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, a listing of Ibsen's plays, and books about him. The bulk of the volume focuses on four of his famous plays, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, When We Dead Awaken, and Peer Gynt. The discussions about the plays include an extensive summary of the play, a description of the plays' principle characters, and between five and eight critical analyses by experts on the plays. These quotes are usually one or two pages long.

The analyses by the experts usually differ from each other resulting in the reader obtaining a multi-dimensional insight of thought-provoking ideas, ideas that conjure up our own thoughts about the plays. For example, Arthur Miller focuses on Ibsen's portrayal of the evolutionary aspects of life; George Bernard Shaw on Ibsen challenging the misguided ill-conceived "ideals" of his age; Janet Garton on the impact upon Ibsen of the Norwegian tales entitled Trolls, inner shadow figures that combine a playful nature with a demonic urge to destroy; Helge Rnning about Ibsen and European politics, including his anger against the Norwegians that prompted him to leave his birthplace for Italy, and yet he wrote about his country; Michael Meyer on the influences of hypnotism on his plays and how his own ideas about himself affected the characters that he portrayed; and Vigis Ystad about the psychology of these characters and how they interacted with one another.
... Read more

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Henrik Ibsen's Prose Dramas Vol III - Lady Inger of Ostrat is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Henrik Ibsen is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Henrik Ibsen then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more