Lady from the Sea [Hardcover]

Henrik Ibsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1979 | ISBN-10: 0846400936 | ISBN-13: 978-0846400936

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As you might expect of the work of one of the founders of Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe, Bernard Sahlins' new translation of Beaumarchais' classic eighteenth-century farce is considerably looser and more accessible than other versions currently in print. Chuckling through the printed version of the play, you can see its appeal for an audience more interested in entertainment than in the play's importance as an influence on French theater and, via Mozart's famous musical adaptation, on the history of opera. Yet Sahlins' "speakable" version of the play sacrifices little of its spirit or of the pointed class distinctions of the French court of its time. Nor does Sahlins, in making the original play palatable to a contemporary audience, denature Beaumarchais' two great comic creations--the wily, wise valet Figaro and his equally wily, beautiful wife-to-be Suzanne remain living, breathing characters, as amusing and likable to us today as they were two centuries ago. Jack Helbig --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Play in five acts by Henrik Ibsen, published in Norwegian as Fruen fra havet in 1888 and first performed in early 1889. It was the first of several mystical psychological dramas by Ibsen. The play traces the increasing distraction of Ellida Wangel, the second wife of Dr. Wangel. She is obsessed with images of the sea because she once loved a sailor who promised to someday claim her. When the sailor does arrive, her husband releases her from her wedding vows. This act restores her equilibrium and breaks the sailor's spell over her. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Olympic Marketing Corp (June 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0846400936
• ISBN-13: 978-0846400936
• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,652,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( I ) > Ibsen, Henrik

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ibsen's Most Operatic Play, January 20, 2009

By 

Giordano Bruno - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lady from the Sea (mobi) (Kindle Edition)

Too operatic, I think, to be successful on the stage today, in the 'theater of realism' that Ibsen himself did so much to invent! "The Lady from the Sea" demands to be read as a 19th C melodrama, replete with stilted language and conventions of stagecraft that a youthful audience in 2009 will find embarrassing; it's uncomfortably halfway between realism and 'magic realism', that is, between a plausible psychological drama and a ghost story.

Still, there are depths in this odd play, which is not what it seems. It is definitely not a love story with a happy ending. Rather it's about the unbroachable wall between men and women in a society of strict gender roles. It's Ibsen's most radical statement of feminism, very close to Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley's declaration that marriage is merely monogamous prostitution. There are five overlapping amorous attractions in the play, and all of them are painfully out of balance. Happy ending or not, this play is tragic. I seriously think that only music could successfully express the underlying grief that Ibsen is ascribing to all male-female relationships.

It would make a superb opera! I wish I had the talent to write it.