To view prices and purchase online, please login or create an account now.



Ghosts

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Ghosts
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Henrik Ibsen
Translated by Michael Meyer
Edited by Non Worrall
SeriesStudent Editions
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:128
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenrePlays, playscripts
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780713686753
ClassificationsDewey:839.8226
Audience
Undergraduate
Illustrations N/A

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publication Date 5 January 2008
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Ghosts is Ibsen's formidably realistic play about the effects of previous generations on the young, a stinging satire on contemporary Norwegian society and morality, and a haunting tragedy that, more than a century since it premiered, still retains its power to shock. In Ibsen's study of the lingering poison in a marriage based on a lie, Osvald Alving returns from Paris to his mother's home, carrying with him a dreadful secret. His mother's delight at having him home soon turns to horror and grief. The corruption that she had hoped to spare him from when sending him away from the influence of his depraved father has in fact infected his whole body in the form of syphillis. In Mrs Alving and her son's distrust of conventional religion and mores and Oswald's anguish with life, Ibsen created a thoroughly modern and provocative work that created widespread outrage and shock when first produced in 1881. 'Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field' George Steiner, The New Statesman

Author Biography

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and poet whose realistic, symbolic and often controversial plays revolutionised European theatre. He is widely regarded as the father of modern drama. His acclaimed plays include A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People and The Pillars of the Community.

Reviews

'Ghosts is a forboding litany of sins past which unravel to lay bare a series of creeping consequences that damn everyone involved, unwittingly or not.' Neil Cooper, Herald, 18.5.09 'Ibsen has the extraordinary capacity for building up tension like the force of water gathering behind a fracturing dyke. When the walls finally break, the ensuing flood is irresistible.' Mark Brown, Sunday Herald, 24.5.09 'Ibsen's most notable foray into the nature/nurture debate' Steve Cramer, Financial Times, 26.5.09