Four Major Plays, Vol. 2: Ghosts / An Enemy of the People / The Lady from the Sea / John Gabriel Borkman

by Henrik Ibsen, Rolf Fjelde (Translator)

Dramatizes confrontations with family guilt, social hypocrisy, conventional morality, and materialistic ethics

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

400 pages, paper

First published July 1, 1970

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

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Enemy of the People is a timeless masterpiece, despite its setting of time and place. A doctor in a small Norwegian village who works at a spa that largely supports the town's thriving summer tourism industry find out the it is infested with bacteria. The opposition of his brother, the mayor, together with shifting allegiances creates a personal, ethical and moral crisis. The malleability of public opinion to support expedient opportunism seems oddly contemporary.

Ghosts was a good story about how life's decisions have never-ending ramifications. "But I almost believe we are ghosts, all of us, Pastor. It’s not only what we inherit from our fathers and mothers that keeps on returning in us. It’s all kinds of old dead doctrines and opinions and beliefs, that sort of thing. They aren’t alive in us; but they hang on all the same, and we can’t get rid of them."

I found The Lady of the Sea and John Gabriel Borkman to be both tedious and annoying in plot and pace.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

So of this group of 4 Ibsen plays, Enemy of the People and Lady From the Sea, I really enjoyed and would actually give a ranking of 5 stars, but I didn't LOVE all 4 plays so I dropped the rating by 1. This doesn't by any means, mean I disliked Ghost or John Gabriel Borkman, for me, they just didn't resonate quit as much. Enemy of the People, I found to be very profound and current for today's society. If you only read 1 play from this collection this would be my choice. It is individual vs. many, right vs. wrong, acceptance vs. ostracism.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ibsen is still relevant today, and deserves to be read and reread. I love his flawed and fascinating characters. I like to read a work and then go to a play, and this year there was an Ibsen revival by a good local theater company. Highly recommended brain candy.

[Steven Van Neste · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always with Ibsen, one can expect an existential tour de force.
Ghosts is probably one of the most famous Ibsen plays and like so many other Ibsen works it center around the resurrection of the past and the sudden upheaval of the present.
An Enemy of the People; is a strong work that centers around the quest of a single man to stand up for the truth against all odds; even if people prefer practical comfort to truth.
The Lady from the Sea, is centered around the silence of tension that can rest between people and create. As with Ghosts there is also the resurrection of the past, more than anything however, the central aspect of 'time' in this play is that through the present can in a way change the past.
John Gabriel Borkman is a beautiful treatment of alienation, it involves people stuck in the ideas of the past and who consequently have no present.

[Emily D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ibsen's a genius. I had accidentally picked this book of his plays up at a used bookstore thinking it was his most famous plays, and didn't realize it was "volume 2". I wasn't expecting to be "wowed" by them after I discovered my mistake-I was proven wrong! Unlike Chekhov, whose plays were ok but just not for me, Ibsen's plays hooked me in and held me through to the final acts. He has a very keen way of handling drama, emotions, and irony and I am excited to read all of his other plays now.
I would say the over-arching theme to these four plays was: a person needs freedom,and free will to live life and make choices, without overbearing influence, even from those closest and dearest to the heart.

[Jack Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read Ghosts and An Enemy of the People before. This indicates that I have read The Lady from the Sea and John Gabriel Borkman. The Lady from the Sea is scheduled for performance in Chicago in February 2022. It probably deserves more attention than it's given. I wonder what Ibsen himself would have thought of its ending.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of these plays, but plays aren't usually my thing, so I am a poor judge.

[Alex Csicsek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh there's nothing like some Ibsen stage directions to engross a reader.

This collection of four plays by the Norwegian great Henrik Ibsen offers a selection of some of his well-regarded if less famous work. Those who have seen/read Doll's House or the Wild Duck will find these plays familiar although the conflicts are on a different scale. In An Enemy of the People, for example - and not only because it was my favorite -, a respected doctor is determined to inform his town that the local baths are not merely a source of wealth but also a source of disease thanks to dangerous pollution. When the people slowly realize the threat this claim poses to their prosperity the result is conflict not only in household but also in community, which adds an even stronger sense of suspension and tension to that found in better recognized Isben works. At core however remains the playwright's profound suspicion over Victorian morality and the thoughtlessness of following social expectations at the expense of truth.

Ghosts is excellent as well. Also included are Lady from the Sea and John Gabriel Borkman.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had fun reading this collection of four (three brilliant, one so-so) plays by the master of prose-style plays, Henrik Ibsen. Ghosts poses a question of duty versus happiness and its portrayal of syphilis (described as "softening of the brain")caused chaos in conservative 19th-century Europe. An Enemy of the People, perhaps the best play in this collection,is the story of a town doctor ridiculed by the masses for revealing that their municipal baths, which is the town's main source of income, is contaminated with bacteria. The Lady From The Sea, the weakest in my opinion, is the story of a woman traumatized by a past lover and is having a difficult time of moving on. John Gabriel Borkman tells the story of an ambitious ex-convict and the two women he loved. The plays, as Ibsen's wont, poses existential questions that will make you pause and reflect. Read this and be enlightened. P.S. My actual rating is 4.5.

[Shanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a couple of my books I've read this summer, they referred to Ibsen and I didn't know what they were talking about so I decided to read this. I really enjoyed his writing style and I loved "An enemy of the people". The plays were pretty short, kept my attention and were thought provoking. I was a little uncertain at first, but they surpassed my expectations.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Randi recommended Ducks by Ibsen, and this one was in the same book, so I read Ghosts, too. It was about a love triangle, I couldn't really relate to it. IT was quite dark and depressing, and didn't really seem to have an ending, other than imagining more of the same for the people involved. Perhaps if I had seen it, it would have made a more meaningful impact.

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still remarkably contemporary (in most aspects), Ibsen's only real fault in these plays is the understandable lack of subtlety mixed with the deliberate obfuscations of the motivations of the characters.

[John Matthew IV · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read John Gabriel Borkman. It was okay but after just reading A Doll's House, I prefer the former.

I didn't enjoy the introduction nor the afterward. They were written at a very high level. Probably great for an English major but not really geared for a casual reader.

[Mr · Rating 4 out of 5]

either ibsen or general burnside have the most influential facial hair in history. really would like to see the plays performed

[Andy]

norway's finest dead playwright

[Timmie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Ghosts and An Enemy of the People, both of which I thought were amazing plays. I love Ibsen's work, and cannot wait until I have more time to read the other two plays.

[EAL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly? I skimmed. I didn't even read AEotP or JGB. Not my kind of thing.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read and loved Ghosts, but didn't read the other three plays.