Hedda Gabler and Other Plays (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Henrik Ibsen (Author), Una Ellis-Fermor (Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1951 | Series: Penguin Classics

In these three unforgettably intense plays, Henrik Ibsen explores the problems of personal and social morality that he perceived in the world around him and, in particular, the complex nature of truth. "The Pillars of the Community" (1877) depicts a corrupt shipowner's struggle to hide the sins of his past at the expense of another man's reputation, while in "The Wild Duck" (1884) an idealist, believing he must tell the truth at any cost, destroys a family by exposing the lie behind his friend's marriage. And "Hedda Gabler" (1890) portrays an unhappily married woman who is unable to break free from the conventional life she has created for herself, with tragic results for the entire family.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Known as the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen is considered one of the world's greatest playwrights. His ability to turn revolutionary philosophical ideas into brilliant social dramas inspired the likes of George Bernard Shaw, while his drive to manifest the truths of the human heart is mirrored in the plays of Anton Chekhov. Ibsen's genius, revealed in these four selections, lies in his startling abiliy to define his characters and their struggles, whih epitomize the inner conflicts that beset all human beings. A chilling play of manipulation and obsession, Hedda Gabler features one of the stage's most unforgettable modern heroines. A delightful early work, Peer Gynt is both a satire on the nature of man and a masterpiece of folklore and fantasy that follows the adventures of an irrepressible youth. Mysterious, lyrical, and tragic, The Master Builder symbolically dramatizes the trajectory of Ibsen's own art as well as the impossible aspirations of the soul. This Bantam Classic edition also includes Little Eyolf, a brilliantly consrtucted psychological study of paternal responsibility and the impact of a child's death on a man torn between two women. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Henrik Ibsen was born of well-to-do parents at Skien, a small Norwegian coastal town, on March 20, 1828. In 1836 his father went bankrupt, and the family was reduced to near poverty. At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to an apothecary in Grimstad. In 1850 Ibsen ventured to Christiania—present-day Oslo—as a student, with the hope of becoming a doctor. On the strength of his first two plays he was appointed “theater-poet” to the new Bergen National Theater, where he wrote five conventional romantic and historical dramas and absorbed the elements of his craft. In 1857 he was called to the directorship of the financially unsound Christiania Norwegian Theater, which failed in 1862. In 1864, exhausted and enraged by the frustration of his efforts toward a national drama and theater, he quit Norway for what became twenty-seven years of voluntary exile abroad. In Italy he wrote the volcanic Brand (1866), which made his reputation and secured him a poet’s stipend from the government. Its companion piece, the phantasmagoric Peer Gynt, followed in 1867, then the immense double play, Emperor and Galilean (1873), expressing his philosophy of civilization. Meanwhile, having moved to Germany, Ibsen had been searching for a new style. With The Pillars of Society he found it; this became the first of twelve plays, appearing at two-year intervals, that confirmed his international standing as the foremost dramatist of his age. In 1900 Ibsen suffered the first of several strokes that incapacitated him. He died in Oslo on May 23, 1906.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (March 30, 1951)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014044016X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140440164
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #768,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > More Languages > Norwegian
  • #85 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Scandinavian