The Pretenders

Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian poet and dramatist; was born at Skien, a small village on Langesund Fjord, Norway, March 20, 1828. While in his twentieth year he became an apothecary's clerk in the village of Grimstad, during which period he wrote several poems which were published in country papers, and of which but one, Til Ungarn, survives. While preparing for Christiania University, he wrote a drama entitled Catalina, which was rejected by the theatres and publishers, and was printed at last at the expense of a friend, the total sales being but thirty copies. The same year he entered Christiania University and began writing for the daily and other periodicals, and he closed the year by obtaining the presentation of a one-act play, Kjaempehojen, at the Christiania Theatre.His Christiania career was cut short by the offer of the post of theatre director and dramatic author for the theatre at Bergen, the second city of Norway, with a trip abroad to study methods and an engagement for five years. No doubt the poet's remarkable dramatic handling is largely due to his having accepted this proposal and thus having long studied the drama from the standpoint of the actual presentation.His plays are: Brand, a Drama; A Doll's House, a satiric comedy; Peer Gynt, a dramatic poem; Emperor and Galilean, a historic drama (in two parts, I. Julian's Apostasy, II. Julian, the Emperor); The Pillars of Society, a satiric comedy; The Warriors at Helgeland, a historical drama, Love's Comedy. a satiric play: and the series comprising Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea, Hedda Gabler, and Architect Solness, all of which are alike in that they aim to dissect the conventionalities of the social system under which we live.