Henrik Ibsen

Bryony Lavery

Nora loves her husband above everything. But when she risks her reputation in order to save him, the consequences force her to examine her devotion, and she finds herself struggling for her own life. Henrik Ibsen's ground-breaking play created a huge sensation at its premiere in 1879 and is as fresh and pertinent as ever, with an unfading capacity to shock.

A Doll's House

One of the best-known, most frequently performed of modern plays, A Doll's House richly displays the genius with which Henrik Ibsen pioneered modern, realistic prose drama. In the central character of Nora, Ibsen epitomized the human struggle against the humiliating constraints of social conformity. Nora's ultimate rejection of a smothering marriage and life in "a doll's house" shocked theatergoers of the late 1800s and opened new horizons for playwrights and their audiences. But daring social themes are only one aspect of Ibsen's power as a dramatist. A Doll's House shows as well his gifts for creating realistic dialogue, a suspenseful flow of events and, above all, psychologically penetrating characterizations that make the struggles of his dramatic personages utterly convincing. Here is a deeply absorbing play as readable as it is eminently playable, reprinted from an authoritative translation. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Jade Flynn

nahomi

Ville

Anna 

A collection of anthologies, resource and reference books, including titles from Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, Alex Madina, Jo Phillips and Adrian Barlow.

Andrea Delgado Guzman

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader?s notes to help the modern reader contend with Ibsen?s approach to complex human interactions and the relationship between the sexes.Norwegian-born Henrik Ibsen?s classic play about the struggle between independence and security still resonates with readers and audience members today. Often hailed as an early feminist work, the story of Nora and Torvald rises above simple gender issues to ask the bigger question: "To what extent have we sacrificed our selves for the sake of social customs and to protect what we think is love?" Nora?s struggle and ultimate realizations about her life invite all of us to examine our own lives and find the many ways we have made ourselves dolls and playthings in the hands of forces we believe to be beyond our control.

A Doll's House - Literary Touchstone Edition

Gillian Rose

Ana Hein

'I think I'm a human being before anything else. I don't care what other people say. I don't care what people write in books. I need to think for myself.' Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premiered in 1879 in Copenhagen, the second in a series of realist plays by Ibsen, and immediately provoked controversy with its apparently feminist message and exposure of the hypocrisy of Victorian middle-class marriage. In Ibsen's play, Nora Helmer has secretly (and deceptively) borrowed a large sum of money to pay for her husband, Torvald, to recover from illness on a sabbatical in Italy. Torvald's perception of Nora is of a silly, naive spendthrift, so it is only when the truth begins to emerge, and Torvald appreciates the initiative behind his wife, that unmendable cracks appear in their marriage. This compelling new version of Ibsen's masterpiece by playwright Simon Stephens premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, on 29 June 2012. It was updated with minor changes in 2013.

Allison Garrett

Alyssa Mastrocco

Elizabeth Moore

Christopher Hampton

This epochal drama of marriage and the individual portrays a controlling husband, Torvald Helmer, and his wife, Nora, a submissive young woman who, when their idealized home life collapses, comes to the realization that she must finally close the door on her husband, children, and life in "a doll's house" in order to find and live as her true self.

Esme

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Ibsen's revolutionary tale of Nora's awakening to her need for a life of her own. This version of A Doll's House is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.