Collects five plays spanning Ibsen's career, with general introductions, explanatory annotations, criticism, and selections from his correspondence and other writings. Ibsen ascended to the first ranks of European writers in the late nineteenth century and has remained there ever since. Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi The Texts of the Plays 1(422) Peer Gynt 3(140) The Realist Cycle A Doll House 143(64) The Wild Duck 207(81) Hedda Gabler 288(69) The Master Builder 357(66) Backgrounds 423(38) CORRESPONDENCE AND DOCUMENTS 425(36) Peer Gynt 425(8) To Björnstjerne Björnson, 9 December 1867 425(3) To Björnstjerne Björnson, 28 December 1867 428(1) To Edward Grieg, 23 January 1874 429(2) To Ludwig Passarge, 16 June 1880 431(1) To Edmund Gosse, 15 January 1874 432(1) A Doll House 433(5) The Alternative German Ending 433(1) To the Nationaltidende, 17 February 1880 434(1) To Heinrich Laube, 18 February 1880 435(1) To Moritz Prozor, 23 January 1 436(1) Speech at the Banquet of the Norwegian League for Women's Rights 437(1) The Wild Duck 438(2) To Frederik Hegel, 2 September 1884 438(1) To Hans Schrøder, 14 November 1884 438(1) To August Lindberg, 22 November 1884 439(1) Hedda Gabler 440(2) To Moritz Prozor, 4 December 1890 440(1) To Hans Schrøder, 27 December 1890 441(1) To Kristina Steen, 14 January 1891 441(1) Autobiographical 442(21) Sketch of Childhood 442(4) To Magdalene Thoresen, 3 December 1865 446(3) To Björnstjerne Björnson, 28 January 1865 449(2) To Georg(e) Brandes, 20 December 1870 451(1) To Georg(e) Brandes, 17 February 1871 452(2) To Georg(e) Brandes, 24 September 1871 454(2) To Georg(e) Brandes, 30 April 1873 456(1) To John Paulsen, 20 September 1879 457(1) To Georg(e) Brandes, 11 October 1896 458(1) To Georg(e) Brandes, 3 June 1897 458(1) To the Reader 459(2) Criticism 461(142) PEER GYNT 463(8) W.H. Auden Genius and Apostle 463(8) A DOLL HOUSE 471(20) Bernard Shaw A Doll's House Again 471(4) Rolf Fjelde Introduction to A Doll House 475(2) Sandra Saari Female Become Human: Nora Transformed 477(14) THE WILD DUCK 491(10) J.S. Welhaven Søfuglen (The Sea Bird) 491(1) Rainer Maria Rilke Letter to Clara Rilke 492(1) Michael Goldman Style as Vision: The Wild Duck, Child Abuse, and History 492(9) HEDDA GABLER 501(11) Henry James On the Occasion of Hedda Gabler 501(11) THE MASTER BUILDER 512(13) Henry James On the Occasion of The Master Builder 512(3) Brian Johnston Plot and Story in The Master Builder 515(10) GENERAL THEMES 525(78) Einar Haugen Poetry in the Round 525(15) Jennette Lee Ibsen's Symbolism Defined 540(4) Rainer Maria Rilke From The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge 544(2) E.M. Forster Ibsen the Romantic 546(4) Hugh Kenner Joyce and Ibsen's Naturalism 550(16) George Steiner From The Death of Tragedy 566(5) G. Wilson Knight From Henrik Ibsen 571(7) Rick Davis The Smiling Ibsen: Comedy and Romance in Three Plays of the Prose Cycle 578(9) Joan Templeton Genre, Representation, and the Politics of Dramatic Form: Ibsen's Realism 587(16) Henrik Ibsen: A Chronology 603(6) Selected Bibliography 609