Hedda Gabler (Dover Thrift Editions) [Paperback]

Henrik Ibsen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Thrift Editions | Publication Date: July 1, 1990

This dark psychological drama was first produced in Norway in 1890 and depicts the evil machinations of a ruthless, nihilistic heroine: the infamous Hedda Gabler. Readers will discover a masterly exploration of the nature of evil, along with the potential for tragedy that lies in human frailty. A true masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-Ibsen's classic is well served by the talents of Juliet Stevenson and seven other British actors, all veterans of the Royal Shakespeare Company, stage, and film. With excellent diction and generally convincing emotion, the polished cast conveys the dark despair that touches everyone in the play, and eventually overwhelms Hedda. Brief, but pleasant music gently marks the end of each act, and sound quality is good throughout. Exceptionally complete liner notes make it easy to find a specific track, and there's plenty of playbill-style information about the performers and the play. While this recordings is not a must buy, it will be a helpful audio component to classes studying the work of Norway's great 19th century playwright.
Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review

Drama in four acts by Henrik Ibsen, published in 1890 and produced the following year. The work reveals Hedda Gabler as a selfish, cynical woman bored by her marriage to the scholar Jorgen Tesman. Her father's pair of pistols provide intermittent diversion, as do the attentions of the ne'er-do-well Judge Brack. When Thea Elvestad, a longtime acquaintance of Hedda's, reveals that she has left her husband for the writer Ejlert Lovborg, who once pursued Hedda, the latter becomes vengeful. Learning that Ejlert has forsworn liquor, Hedda first steers him to a rowdy gathering at Brack's and subsequently burns the reputedly brilliant manuscript that he loses there while drunk. Witnessing his desperation, she sends him one of the pistols and he shoots himself. Brack deduces Hedda's complicity and demands that she become his mistress in exchange for his silence about the matter. Instead, she ends her ennui with the remaining pistol. The work is remarkable for its nonjudgmental depiction of an immoral, destructive character, one of the most vividly realized women in dramatic literature. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (July 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486264696
• ISBN-13: 978-0486264691
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies > General
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Continental European
  • #35 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > Continental European

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hedda, the prisioner, April 3, 2000

By 

Dharmahopeful... (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hedda Gabler (Drama Classics) (Paperback)

Hedda Gabler lives in an absolute prison. Her idylic residence is a prison, her marriage to a hopeful "ilustrious intellectual" is a prison, but above all, she lives imprisoned by herself, trapped by the social parameters that demand her to live the way she does. Hedda just can't figure out how to get out of that tedious state. She's intelligent, cold, severe; Gabler has an almost prodigious capacity to obtain all the information she inquires about the people around her; she manipulates them, she seems to get involved, but she simply tries to take advantage of the situation. Apparently, she doesn't feel much, but in reality, Hedda is in constant turmoil - her involvement has to do, almost exclusively, with what she just cannot allow herself to do.

For this woman, being able to have some sort of "power" over someone becomes the most exciting of all experiences, however - there's a point when she no longer will be able to manipulate the situation on her favor, she will realize how many forces have power over her; therefore, she will simply do the most congruent and coherent of things, as unexpected and shocking as the outcome of this play could possibly be.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hedda Gabler was a remarkable play ahead of its time!, May 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hedda Gabler [UNABRIDGED] (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection) (Audio Cassette)

Henrik Ibsen was truly the Father of Modern Drama! His plays are much more "in-tune" with today's life than many scholars want to believe or will admit. Hedda was a powerful woman, who on the surface appeared to be confined by a dress, imprisoned in man's house, and smothered by a male-dominated society. It would appear that Thea Elvstead was the woman with more control, but this is not true. Hedda was a calculating "bitch" who dared (quite shrewdly) to cross over her set in stone "boundaries," manipulate others, and stand back and watch others lives be destroyed as a result. But when she is backed into a corner by the "new" creative couple (George & Thea) and Judge Brack, she takes the final power into her own hand. How ironic that the power is her late father's pistol. How tragic is her death when it was the ultimate control of a destiny that she so strongly desired? Henrik, you were a true visonary!!!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hedda The Misunderstood, March 29, 2004

By 

Angelique (NYC,NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hedda Gabler (Plays for Performance Series) (Hardcover)

Aw Contrare my friends, Hedda was not bored, but trapped. A woman before her time, as most of Ibsen's female characters, unable to yield to the societal norms of the day. A strong, well educated woman existing in a time when permission to go out and about had to be asked of the dominant male of the house. The insurgence of the Industrial Revolution was taking place, the world was changing quickly, and with it old manors and chivalry was being extincted. These mores which Hedda had been raised to cling to were falling away for the world, but not for Hedda. They ran concourse to the blood in her veins.
Despite an inner strength of character and longing to dominate, inspire, and influence, she found herself torn between the new world and the way in which she was raised. Those values and their presence is signified by the silent character of her father, in the form of a picture that is continually refferred to.
When Hedda is overshadowed by Mrs. Elvstead in Lovborg's life she scrambles to make her mark, to have some influence. The nature of that inspiration is of no interest to her. As a madman who longs for fame and finds it in a violent act, Hedda does what she does for the power/influence in it, but not out of malice. Though we, the audience, may judge what her actions may have lead to, this is a moot avenue of perspective. It is "why" she does what she does that makes her such an intriguing character.