Ibsen Plays: 3

These three plays, in translations by Michael Meyer, show Ibsen's concerns moving from the study of social problems to the sickness of individuals, and focus in particular on the way in which one person may gain a hypnotic hold over another.

"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) Includes three of Henrik Ibsen's most important works from his middle period. Generally regarded as the father of modern theatre, Ibsen's 'influence on contemporaries and following generations, whether directly or indirectly...can hardly be overestimated' (John Russell Taylor). The three plays in this volume show how Ibsen gradually turned from the study of social problems to a closer concern with the sickness of individuals. In Rosmersholm (1886), 'this most enthralling of Ibsen's works' (George Bernard Shaw), he explores the hypnotic hold one person may gain over another, a theme he took up in his next play, The Lady from the Sea (1888), and which reappears in Little Eyolf (1894), which William Archer ranked 'beside, if not above, the very greatest of Ibsen's works'.Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)