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Loading... Six Plays By Henrik Ibsen: A Doll's House, Ghosts, an Enemy of the People, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler, the Master Builder (edition 1957)by Henrik Ibsen
Work InformationA Doll's House / Ghosts / An Enemy of the People / Rosmersholm / Hedda Gabler / The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen (Author)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. "Six Plays" is an excellent compilation of the great playwright's most famous works. However, at least two different collections have been issued under that title, and readers and collectors might wish to know that they differ slightly in contents. The 1977 Franklin Press edition contains the following plays: A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, and The Master Builder. The Modern Library edition contains five of these plays, but includes Rosmersholm in lieu of The Wild Duck. Both editions use translations by Eva le Gallienne. The Franklin Press edition is a beautiful volume; it is printed on fine gold - edged paper and bound in gold- embossed leather, with textured end papers, and a ribbon book mark. The plays are accompanied with excellent illustrations. I find the book itself a pleasure to read, and was glad to be introduced to the drama of Henrik Ibsen via such a fine volume. A Doll's House (1879) This is Ibsen's stark, unforgiving play about men and women, with a dreadful undercurrent of desperation. Torvald Helmer offers only bland, devastating condescension to Nora, whose despair grows ever more public as she realizes that she has drowned herself in the domestic dead-end of being Torvald's "doll-wife." If you ache, like me, to bash Torvald and comfort Nora as you experience the pervasive and thinly veiled brutality in the Helmer household, then you, like me, must realize how much you wish it could be unimaginable in any way....but in vain... Nora tells her husband that she had hoped he would take the blame for her transgression, and the disdainful Torvald rebukes her: "…one doesn't sacrifice one's honor for love's sake." Nora replies with quiet thunder: "Millions of women have done so." Enfin, we understand how Nora could be too hurt to cry, and too happy to remain in a doll's house.... Read more on my blog: http://barleyliterate.blogspot.com/ no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesModern Library (305)
Six Plays by Henrik Ibsen is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today''s top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader''s viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader''s understanding of these enduring works. The father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen shook off the stale conventions of nineteenth-century theater and made the stage play an instrument for brilliantly illuminating the dark recesses of human nature. After writing historical plays and imaginative epic dramas in verse, such as Peer Gynt, Ibsen turned away from history and romanticism to focus instead on the problems of the individual and modern society. The plays of his middle period—A Doll’s House, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, and his most popular play, Hedda Gabler—are masterpieces of stark psychological realism. In his final plays, including The Master Builder, Ibsen mixed realism and symbolism to enrich his examination of our subconscious drives and urges. Ibsen was criticized and denounced during his lifetime for expanding the boundaries of what is acceptable fare for the stage. Audiences were shocked when he wrote of feminist yearnings, venereal disease, and the deep emotions that underlie the sadness involved in being human. James Joyce put the criticism in perspective: “Henrik Ibsen is one of the world’s great men before whom criticism can make but feeble show. . . . When the art of a dramatist is perfect the critic is superfluous.” Ibsen has since come to be considered one of our greatest playwrights. Martin Puchner is Assistant Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. He is the author of Stage Fright: Modernism, Anti-Theatricality and Drama (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002). No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.8226Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Danish and Norwegian literatures Norwegian literature Norwegian drama 1800–1899LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2014/01/six-plays-by-henrik-ibsen-newly.html ] ( )