A Doll’s House and Other Plays – Henrik Ibsen

Condition : Very Good.
Penguin, Medium-format Paperback – Classics – 336pp. ISBN 9780140441468.

Different stages in the Norwegian playwright’s literary and philosophical development are represented in three dramas. Delivering three distinct and powerful visions of characters who choose to defy convention in the pursuit of happiness.

The League of Youth was Ibsen’s first venture into realistic social drama and marks a turning-point in his style. By 1879 Ibsen was convinced that women suffer an inevitable violation of their personalities within the context of marriage.

In A Doll’s House, Ibsen caused a sensation with his portrayal of Nora Helmer, a woman who, gradually arriving at an understanding of her own misery, struggles to break free from the stifling confines of her marriage.

Continuing the theme of tensions within the family in The Lady from the Sea, Ibsen put forward the view that freedom with responsibility might at least be a step in the right direction.

Peter Watts’s lively modern translation is accompanied by an introduction examining Ibsen’s life and times, with individual discussions of each of the three plays.

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