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    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Ebook184 pages1 hour

    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

    By Henrik Ibsen

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    This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen’.

    Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Ibsen includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

    eBook features:
    * The complete unabridged text of ‘A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’
    * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Ibsen’s works
    * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
    * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPublishdrive
    Release dateJul 17, 2017
    ISBN9781788775847
    A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Author

    Henrik Ibsen

    Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.

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      Book preview

      A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) - Henrik Ibsen

      The Complete Works of

      HENRIK IBSEN

      VOLUME 14 OF 29

      A Doll’s House

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2013

      Version 1

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘A Doll’s House’

      Henrik Ibsen: Parts Edition (in 29 parts)

      First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2017.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 78877 584 7

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

      www.delphiclassics.com

      Henrik Ibsen: Parts Edition

      This eBook is Part 14 of the Delphi Classics edition of Henrik Ibsen in 29 Parts. It features the unabridged text of A Doll’s House from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Henrik Ibsen, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

      Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Henrik Ibsen or the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen in a single eBook.

      Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

      HENRIK IBSEN

      IN 29 VOLUMES

      Parts Edition Contents

      The Plays

      1, Catiline

      2, The Burial Mound

      3, Lady Inger of Oestraat

      4, The Feast at Solhaug

      5, Olaf Liljekrans

      6, The Vikings at Helgeland

      7, Love’s Comedy

      8, The Pretenders

      9, Brand

      10, Peer Gynt

      11, The League of Youth

      12, Emperor and Galilean

      13, Pillars of Society

      14, A Doll’s House

      15, Ghosts

      16, An Enemy of the People

      17, The Wild Duck

      18, Rosmersholm

      19, The Lady from the Sea

      20, Hedda Gabler

      21, The Master Builder

      22, Little Eyolf

      23, John Gabriel Borkman

      24, When We Dead Awaken

      The Poems

      25, The Poetry

      The Norwegian Texts (De norske tekster)

      26, The Original Texts

      The Non-Fiction

      27, Speeches and New Letters

      The Criticism

      28, The Criticism

      The Biography

      29, The Life of Henrik Ibsen by Edmund Gosse

      www.delphiclassics.com

      A Doll’s House

      Translated by William Archer

      One of the most widely performed dramas in theatres across the world, A Doll’s House was an extremely controversial work when first published.  It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play has been designated as a champion of women’s rights in nineteenth century literature, as it fiercely criticised the treatment of wives in a patriarchal society.  In a speech given to the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights in 1898, Ibsen insisted that he must disclaim the honour of having consciously worked for the women’s rights movement, since he wrote without any conscious thought of making propaganda, his task having been the description of humanity.

      Ibsen began conceiving the play’s content in 1878, although he did not begin its first draft until a year later, having reflected on the themes and characters in the intervening period . He outlined his conception of the play as a modern tragedy in a note written in Rome on 19 October, 1878. A woman cannot be herself in modern society, he argues, since it is an exclusively male society, with laws made by men and with prosecutors and judges who assess feminine conduct from a masculine standpoint. Ibsen sent a fair copy of the completed play to his publisher on 15 September, 1879 and it was first published in Copenhagen on 4 December, 1879 in an edition of 8,000 copies that sold out within a month.

      The play opens on Christmas time as Nora, Torvald’s wife, returns home, satisfied and happy with her life and surroundings. An old friend of hers, Mrs. Linde, arrives at her home seeking employment. At the same time, Torvald has just received news of his most recent job promotion and when Nora learns of her husband’s good fortune, she excitedly employs Mrs. Linde. However, as Nora continues in her role as the ordinary housewife, she becomes unhappy with her husband and his actions.

      A Doll’s House was based on the life of Laura Kieler, who was a good friend of Ibsen. Much that happened between Nora and Torvald happened to Laura and her husband, Victor, with the most important exception being the forged signature that was the basis of Nora’s loan. In real life, when Victor found out about Laura’s secret loan, he divorced her and had her committed to an asylum. Two years later, she returned to her husband and children at his urging and she went on to become a well-known Danish author, living to the age of 83. In the play, Nora left Torvald with her head held high, though facing an uncertain future given the limitations women faced in the society of the time. Ibsen wrote the play at the point when Laura Kieler had been committed to the asylum and the fate of this friend of the family troubled him deeply, perhaps also because Laura had asked him to intervene at a crucial point in the scandal, which he did not feel able or willing to do. Instead, he turned this life situation into a successful drama. Kieler eventually rebounded from the shame of the scandal and had her own successful writing career, while remaining discontented with the sole recognition as being Ibsen’s Nora for years afterwards.

      It was felt by Ibsen’s German agent that the original ending would not play well in German theatres; therefore, for the play’s German debut, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending for it to be considered acceptable. In this ending, Nora is led to her children after having argued with Torvald. Seeing them, she collapses, and the curtain is brought down. Ibsen later called the ending a disgrace to the original play and referred to it as a ‘barbaric outrage’.

      Ibsen, close to the time of publication

      Denmark’s Royal Danish Theatre, where this play premiered

      CONTENTS

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      ACT I

      ACT II

      ACT III

      Betty Hennings, the first Nora, in Det Kongelige Teater, 1879

      Alla Nazimova in the 1922 film of ‘A Doll’s House’

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      Torvald Helmer.

      Nora, his wife.

      Doctor Rank.

      Mrs. Linde.

      Nils Krogstad.

      Helmer’s three young children.

      Anne, their nurse.

      A Housemaid.

      A Porter.

      SCENE: The action takes place in Helmer’s house.

      ACT I

      (SCENE. — A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly. At the back, a door to the right leads to the entrance-hall, another to the left leads to Helmer’s study. Between the doors stands a piano. In the middle of the left-hand wall is a door, and beyond it a window. Near the window are a round table, armchairs and a small sofa. In the right-hand wall, at the farther end, another door; and on the same side, nearer the footlights, a stove, two easy chairs and a rocking-chair; between the stove and the door, a small table. Engravings on the wall; a cabinet with china and other small objects; a small book-case with well-bound books. The floors are carpeted, and a fire burns in the stove. It is winter.

      A bell rings in the hall; shortly afterwards the door is heard to open. Enter NORA, humming a tune and in high spirits. She is in out-door dress and carries a number of parcels; these she lays on the table to the right. She leaves the outer door open after her, and through it is seen a PORTER who is carrying a Christmas Tree and a basket, which he gives to the MAID who has opened the door.)

      Nora. Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it till

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