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    Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
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    Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

    By Henrik Ibsen

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    About this ebook

    This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Hedda Gabler 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 ‘Hedda Gabler 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
    ISBN9781788775908
    Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
    Author

    Henrik Ibsen

    Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright who thrived during the late nineteenth century. He began his professional career at age 15 as a pharmacist’s apprentice. He would spend his free time writing plays, publishing his first work Catilina in 1850, followed by The Burial Mound that same year. He eventually earned a position as a theatre director and began producing his own material. Ibsen’s prolific catalogue is noted for depicting modern and real topics. His major titles include Brand, Peer Gynt and Hedda Gabler.

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      Book preview

      Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) - Henrik Ibsen

      The Complete Works of

      HENRIK IBSEN

      VOLUME 20 OF 29

      Hedda Gabler

      Parts Edition

      By Delphi Classics, 2013

      Version 1

      COPYRIGHT

      ‘Hedda Gabler’

      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 590 8

      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 20 of the Delphi Classics edition of Henrik Ibsen in 29 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Hedda Gabler 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

      Hedda Gabler

      Translated by Edmund Gosse and William Archer

      First published in 1890, this famous play premiered in 1891 in Germany, receiving negative reviews, though it has subsequently gained recognition as being one of the greatest works of realism in nineteenth century theatre. The character of Hedda is considered by critics as one of the greatest female roles in theatre. Depending on the interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine fighting society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist or a manipulative villain, offering much scope for any ambitious actress.

      It is uncertain when Ibsen first conceived the idea that resulted in Hedda Gabler. In the summer of 1889 he was in Gossensass, a small Alpine village in the Tyrol. It was here that he made the acquaintance of 27-year-old Emilie Bardach from Vienna. His relationship with her culminated in his falling in love with her in spite of the great difference between their ages. After Emilie Bardach’s return to Vienna and Ibsen’s to Munich, they wrote a number of letters to each other. It is widely considered that Bardach served as the inspiration of the character Hedda Gabler.

      The play was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag in Copenhagen and Christiania on December 16th 1890 in an edition of 10,000 copies. The reaction to the book was almost wholly negative. The critics found Hedda an enigmatic and incomprehensible female character. They complained there was no suggestion of social reform, nothing edifying, no obvious symbolism. The critics vied to outdo each other in condemning the chief character.

      The play was first performed in Munich at the Königliches Residenz-Theater on 31 January 1891, with Clara Heese as Hedda. Ibsen was present at the first night and is said to have been discontented with the actress Heese. He felt that her acting was too declamatory; the critics were reserved in their judgement. The play’s reception by the audience was mixed, with both applause and booing. Those applauding seem to have been in the majority, but this may have been due more to Ibsen’s presence than to the performance itself. The first British performance was at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 20 April the same year, starring Elizabeth Robins, who directed it with Marion Lea playing Thea. Robins also played Hedda in the first American production, which opened on March 30, 1898 at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York City.

      The protagonist’s married name is Hedda Tesman and Gabler is her maiden name. On the subject of the title, Ibsen wrote: My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than her husband’s wife. In the drama, Hedda Gabler, daughter of an aristocratic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania from her honeymoon. Her husband is Jørgen Tesman, an aspiring, reliable, though not brilliant academic, who has combined research with their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she has never loved him, but has married him for reasons pertaining to the tedious nature of her life. It is also suggested that she may be pregnant. The appearance of Tesman’s academic rival, Ejlert Løvborg, throws their lives into disarray. Løvborg, a writer, is also a recovered alcoholic who has wasted his talent until now. Due to a relationship with Hedda’s old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted, who has left her husband for him, Løvborg shows signs of rehabilitation and has just completed a literary work in the same field as Tesman. When Hedda and Ejlert talk privately together, it becomes apparent that they are former lovers and the critical success of his recently published work transforms Løvborg into a threat to Tesman.

      National Theatre Munich, formerly the Königliches Residenz-Theater, where this ‘Hedda Gabler’ was first performed

      The theatre in 1860

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Characters

      Act First

      Act Second

      Act Third

      Act Fourth

      Emilie Bardach, who inspired Hedda’s character

      Title page of the 1890 first edition

      Introduction

      From Munich, on June 29, 1890, Ibsen wrote to the Swedish poet, Count Carl Soilsky: Our intention has all along been to spend the summer in the Tyrol again. But circumstances are against our doing so. I am at present engaged upon a new dramatic work, which for several reasons has made very slow progress, and I do not leave Munich until I can take with me the completed first draft. There is little or no prospect of my being able to complete it in July. Ibsen did not leave Munich at all that season. On October 30 he wrote: At present I am utterly engrossed in a new play. Not one leisure hour have I had for several months. Three weeks later (November 20) he wrote to his French translator, Count Prozor: My new play is finished; the manuscript went off to Copenhagen the day before yesterday.... It produces a curious feeling of emptiness to be thus suddenly separated from a work which has occupied one’s time and thoughts for several months, to the exclusion of all else. But it is a good thing, too, to have done with it. The constant intercourse with the fictitious personages was beginning to make me quite nervous. To the same correspondent he wrote on December 4: "The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda, as a personality, is to be regarded rather as her father’s daughter than as her husband’s wife. It was not my desire to deal in this play with so-called problems. What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings, human emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of certain of the social conditions and principles of the present day."

      So far we read the history of the play in the official Correspondence.(A) Some interesting glimpses into the poet’s moods during the period between the completion of The Lady from the Sea and the publication of Hedda Gabler are to be found in the series of letters to Fraulein Emilie Bardach, of Vienna, published by Dr. George Brandes.(B) This young lady Ibsen met at Gossensass in the Tyrol in the autumn of 1889. The record of their brief friendship belongs to the history of The Master Builder rather than to that of Hedda Gabler, but the allusions to his work in his letters to her during the winter of 1889 demand some examination.

      So early as October 7, 1889, he writes to her: A new poem begins to dawn in me. I will execute it this winter, and try to transfer to it the bright atmosphere of the summer. But I feel that it will end in sadness — such is my nature. Was this dawning poem Hedda Gabler? Or was it rather

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