Ibsen's Selected Plays

by Henrik Ibsen, Brian Johnston (Editor)

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.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Scandinavian Literature

612 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major Norwegian playwright largely responsible for the rise of modern realistic drama. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama." Ibsen is held to be the greatest of Norwegian authors and one of the most important playwrights of all time, celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians.

His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many contemporaries.

Ibsen largely founded the modern stage by introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Victorian-era plays were expected to be moral dramas with noble protagonists pitted against darker forces; every drama was expected to result in a morally appropriate conclusion, meaning that goodness was to bring happiness, and immorality pain. Ibsen challenged this notion and the beliefs of his times and shattered the illusions of his audiences.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peer Gynt **** -- What a strange and imaginative play, sprawling across time and place, telling of a man who loses himself in dreams but in real life is unable to commit himself to anything fully.

To me, Act V’s the Button Molder is the play’s most wonderful creation. He’s come to melt down poor Peer for not distinguishing himself enough to be saved in heaven or hell. He’s done enough to get by, and skirted around any problem too complicated. And the Button Molder will melt him down with all the other middling sinners and saints, to perhaps create a lasting button.

The scenes with the Woman in Green are delightful, with the darkly humorous requirements for Peer to become a troll. Also, the Lean Man/Devil is also a delightful character as is the strange Passenger in Act V. The work does drag in spots, though, as in the insane asylum.

However, it is a rollicking and surprising work exploring what it means to be true to yourself and to be enough to yourself.

[Mahnoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Shakespeare, Ibsen is the golden playwright of western literature. There I said it

Also 10000% would recommend the Norton Critical editions for undergrad resources. They have all articles and background information you will need for your undergrad degree

[Kristina Pasko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read A Doll House and the related background and criticism (not the whole book!).

[juno!]

Read Peer Gynt, A Doll’s House, and Hedda Gabler

[Jimgosailing · Rating 4 out of 5]

I basically got this for the essays, but have to note that I was surprised that Ghosts wasn’t one of the plays selected for this collection. Thematically it fits well with the other plays in this collection.

The essays were informative (and what I gleaned from them would be included in notes under each individual play)

[Adam Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like Ibsen's plays (at least, those in this volume), although they are rather bleak. I didn't find them depressing or cautionary but rather just sort of nihilistic. I'm sure there are certain cautions we can read into these plays, lessons to be learned, but I don't think that's what Ibsen intended. I like what Forster had to say about him (from the criticism in the back of this volume)--that if his characters were ever happy or content, those things disappeared well before the curtain rose, and we see them in mid decay. Many tragedies begin in happiness and show the unraveling, the agnarosis. Ibsen starts already unraveled. There are elements of characters still clinging to ideals and happiness, but Ibsen the writer and we as his audience have already gone ahead, as if, without knowing the outcome, we do know what awaits them.

Ibsen's dialogue is very readable. It has only minor references to things outside of or before our modern understanding, with the possible exception of Peer Gynt, which is still very accessible.

[Moneeza Rafiq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not only does this book contain Ibsen's famous plays with annotations, there is also critical analysis, reviews, and enough material for a good study on Ibsen.