Henrik Ibsen

"Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war 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 cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)

"Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field" (George Steiner) Includes three of Henrik Ibsen's most important works from his middle period. Generally regarded as the father of modern theatre, Ibsen's 'influence on contemporaries and following generations, whether directly or indirectly...can hardly be overestimated' (John Russell Taylor). The three plays in this volume show how Ibsen gradually turned from the study of social problems to a closer concern with the sickness of individuals. In Rosmersholm (1886), 'this most enthralling of Ibsen's works' (George Bernard Shaw), he explores the hypnotic hold one person may gain over another, a theme he took up in his next play, The Lady from the Sea (1888), and which reappears in Little Eyolf (1894), which William Archer ranked 'beside, if not above, the very greatest of Ibsen's works'. Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)

I Ibsens første notater om stykket ser vi at han ville skrive om ekteskapet, kristendommen og det moderne samfunn. Det er et sterkt kammerdrama om familien Ekdal og de etiske og følelsesmessige konfliktene de havner i. «Tar De livsløgnen fra et gjennomsnittsmenneske, så tar De lykken fra ham med det samme.» (Dr. Relling, fjerde akt.)