Ibsen Plays: 4: John Gabriel Borkman; Pillars of Society; When We Dead Awaken (World Classics) - Softcover

Ibsen, Henrik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413463605 ISBN 13: 9780413463609

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 1980

Synopsis

"Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of postwar drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field" (George Steiner)

The plays shine freshly from the pages . . .This will be our definitive Ibsen." (Jc Trewin) This volume contains Ibsen's first great modern prose play and his two last symbolic dramas. The Pillars of Society, written between 1875 and 1877, exhibits many of the classic elements which recur in the subsequent plays a marriage founded on a lie, women stunted by social conventions, an arrogant man destroying the happiness of those around him. John Gabriel Borkman (1896), according to Edvard Munch, is "the most powerful winter landscape in Scandinavian art"; and Ibsen's last play, When We Dead Awaken (1899), also dealing with "the coldness of heart", showed, said Bernard Shaw, "no decay of Ibsen's highest qualities. His magic is nowhere more potent. Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobwebfree, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'The play shines freshly from the pages... This will be our definitive Ibsen.'-- JC Trewin This volume contains Ibsen's first great modern prose play and his last two symbolic dramas. The Pillars of Society, written between 1875 and 1877, exhibits many of the classic elements which recur in the subsequent plays -- a marriage founded on a lie, women stunted by social conventions, an arrogant man destroying the happiness of those around him. John Gabriel Borkman (1896), according to Edvard Munch, is 'the most powerful winter landscape in Scandinavian art' and Ibsen's last play, When We Dead Awaken (1899), also dealing with 'the coldness of heart' showed, said Bernard Shaw, 'no decay of Ibsen's highest qualities. His magic is nowhere more potent.'

About the Author:

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828. His plays include Peer Gynt (1867), A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), Hedda Gabler (1890), and The Master Builder (1892). He died in 1906.

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 1980
• ISBN 10: 0413463605
• ISBN 13: 9780413463609
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 270