Ibsen: The Complete Major Prose Plays
by Henrik Ibsen

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Book Review: A Nordic chill
Summary: 5 Stars

The earlier works in the cycle achieved notoriety because of their themes, which were considered daring in those days. Nowadays, we can view these works with a greater objectivity. It is clear that Ibsen was still developing what was then a relatively new form - the realistic prose drama; and there are elements - e.g. the attempted blackmail and intercepted letter in "A Doll's House" - where we may still see remnants of the older type of melodrama from which Ibsen was attempting to break out. But they are very fine plays nonetheless, dealing with the individual's relationship with the wider society. Ibsen always remained aware of the extent to which human characters are moulded by the society they inhabit, but from "Rosmersholm" onwards, he focussed more on the characters' inner lives. He also found ways of saying more with less: his later plays are so concentrated, that not a word, not a gesture, is irrelevant.

Instead of re-using old myths, like Wagner or Joyce in their fields, Ibsen creates myths of his own: the white horses of Rosmersholm, for example, or the Master Builder who had defied God, but who dares not climb as high as he builds. A powerful poetic imagination is apparent in these plays, filling them with images of unforgettable intensity. The last play, "When We Dead Awaken", appears in part to forsake the realistic drama that Ibsen had so painstakingly developed, and return to the world of those earlier poetic masterpieces, "Brand" and "Peer Gynt".

"Hedda Gabler", "The Master Builder", "Little Eyolf", "John Gabriel Borkman" - these late plays are worthy to stand alongside the tragic masterpieces of Shakespeare or the Greeks. But a Nordic chill runs through them.

There are distinguished translations by, amongst others, Michael Meyer (Methuen), Una Ellis-Fermor and Peter Watts (Penguin), and here, usefully collected in one volume, by Rolf Fjelde. They all bring out different aspects of these works, and they are all eminently readable. (Having seen many of these translations in various performances, they also work well on stage.) Until I learn Norwegian to read these works in the original, these translations will have pride of place on my shelves.

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