HEDDA GABLER AND OTHER PLAYS (Bantam Classic) - Softcover

Known as the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen is considered one of the world's greatest playwrights. His ability to turn revolutionary philosophical ideas into brilliant social dramas inspired the likes of George Bernard Shaw, while his drive to manifest the truths of the human heart is mirrored in the plays of Anton Chekhov. Ibsen's genius, revealed in these four selections, lies in his startling abiliy to define his characters and their struggles, whih epitomize the inner conflicts that beset all human beings. A chilling play of manipulation and obsession, Hedda Gabler features one of the stage's most unforgettable modern heroines. A delightful early work, Peer Gynt is both a satire on the nature of man and a masterpiece of folklore and fantasy that follows the adventures of an irrepressible youth. Mysterious, lyrical, and tragic, The Master Builder symbolically dramatizes the trajectory of Ibsen's own art as well as the impossible aspirations of the soul. This Bantam Classic edition also includes Little Eyolf, a brilliantly consrtucted psychological study of paternal responsibility and the impact of a child's death on a man torn between two women.

The three plays in this volume cover the period during which Ibsen (1828-1906) was preoccupied with realistic problems of personal and social morality. In The Pillars of the Community, partly by means of symbolism, he exposes the effects of a lie told to preserve a man's public reputation. The solution - to admit the truth - scarcely seemed so simple seven years later, when Ibsen completed The Wild Duck in apparent disillusionment. Hedda Gabler, the latest of these plays, is both a drama of individual conflict and partial return to social themes.