Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Hedda Gabler is bored with everything, even her new marriage. Resigning herself to a life of domesticity, she becomes nervous when her husband, George Tesman, tells her they are tight on money. George hasn't become the success Hedda thought he would. When George's academic rival, Eilert Lövborg, enters the picture, Hedda begins manipulating the lives of others, leading to multiple tragedies. First published in 1890 in Norway and performed in 1891 in Germany, this play by Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen explores the consequences that can arise from a desire for freedom and power. This is an unabridged version of the translation by Edmund Gosse and William Archer.
Henrik Ibsen
Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.
Read more from Henrik Ibsen
Ghosts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Enemy of the People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Doll’s House: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rosmersholm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nora : A Doll's House (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhosts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hedda Gabbler Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Enemy of the People (1882) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Enemy of the People: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master Builder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Enemy of the People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFour Plays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wild Duck Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Doll's House (Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp with an Introduction by William Archer) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Enemy of the People (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe League of Youth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When We Dead Awaken Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Eyolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peer Gynt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove's Comedy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Doll's House (1879) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix Plays by Henrik Ibsen (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hedda Gabler (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Hedda Gabler
Titles in the series (100)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don Quixote Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Little Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncle Tom's Cabin: or, Life among the Lowly Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jane Eyre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oedipus Trilogy — Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Garden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paradise Lost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlice's Adventures in Wonderland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Aesop for Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado about Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War of the Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelfth Night: or, What You Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Expectations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
Arden of Feversham Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlays by August Strindberg: The Dream Play - The Link - The Dance of Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The White Devil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Birds and Other Plays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMathilda Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All for Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seagull: A play in four acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As You Like It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life is a Dream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Raven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Yellow Wallpaper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry IV, Part 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Critic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orestes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Woman Of No Importance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Doll's House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Drinks With Dead Poets: A Season of Poe, Whitman, Byron, and the Brontes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Awakening of Spring: A Tragedy of Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ivanov Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe School for Scandal, The Rivals, and The Critic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Eyre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Frogs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Symbolic Short Plays: American Theatre in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seagull Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quiet American Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Hedda Gabler
405 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I can see him. With vineleaves in his hair. Flushed and confident.
I have intended on reading Ibsen my entire adult life. Thinking that perhaps my number may be up, I finally ventured and am glad I did. This play was surprisingly modern and kinetic. Not sure why, but I expected something dour, suffering in the shadows. Violence through understatement. A Scandinavian skewering of morals.
Mismatched couples are such fun--from Middlemarch to The Honeymooners. I'd like to read responses to the character Hedda Gabler herself. There are multitudes in her pauses. This was the first play I read in 2016, surprising as I read 12 the year before. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why, oh why, do I get the impression that Ibsen didn't like his female protagonists very much?
Or, in other words, is there a specific reason that both Nora (from A Doll's House) and Hedda are written as two rather silly women, both incapable of a rational thought?
Surely, exploring the theme of individuals trapped in situation which they want to escape from has more to offer than half-baked schemes, lies, deception, and artistic illusions?
Ugh... - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Read this for a Lit class... Gosh, Hedda Gabler was not very nice.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I recommend it for the compactness of the story, the solid foreshadowing, and the ending. The play is about control, Hedda's mastery at controlling others and her despondency when her greatest attempt fails. The end came back to me often over next few days.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a short play that packs a punch! It also has an exciting ending. A Wikipedia quote says "Depending on the interpretation, Hedda may be portrayed as an idealistic heroine fighting society, a victim of circumstance, a prototypical feminist, or a manipulative villain." So you can decide!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'd never read any Ibsen before and was astonished by this - its psychological depth compared to its economy was amazing, even for drama. Hedda Gabler, the ferociously intelligent, dangerously cruel, yet ultimately pitiable protagonist defies easy categorisation.
I can't imagine why I've waited till now to read it - I saw that there was a new production of it on in London and thought, ooh, I should give that a go. It was another of those "to read" books that's been on the pile for years.
It's a pile I really need to mine more often at this rate. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm not sure what Mr. Ibsen intended when he created the character of Hedda Gabler, but she is the perfect example of a person who is admired for her position, but is completely unworthy of that admiration. She is the hateful bully that gets away with it because no one wants to believe it of her. In the end, her death is an indication of how manipulation of others doesn't give you what you want - it just makes you hate yourself and your life. The tragedy is that Hedda wasn't satisfied until she had ruined the lives around her first.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hedda is kind of a stuck-up, manipulative, hopelessly romantic to the point of nihilistic woman, with an unsubsidiable pride and exaggerated sense of aestheticism. This is an extremely difficult character to portray that when I read the script, I just love Hedda and in some way see myself in her but when seeing it onstage she was such a bitch I just needed to punch her on the face 8-}. Anyways, the character's ambiguity and openness to interpretation is precisely what to love I guess
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This classic Ibsen play is about a woman who has ambitions beyond her modest life, and her beauty has captured a number of men who are willing to help her meet those ambitions. She has no scruples, and will do anything to get what she desires. It is a quick and easy read, and keeps you turning the pages until you reach the final, startling ending.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What a bitch and what a great role. I could see her character translated into a corporate-type taking on the glass ceiling -- ruthless and manipulative. A timeless character.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Even though I'm a fan of master composer Ibsen, this one I've strangely neither seen staged, nor read before. I'm really glad I did now! It's an unusual play, both in plot (revolving mostly around trying to stage your mundane life to try and evoke some excitement) and in it's protagonist. Hedda is not very likeable - she's nasty, condecending, full of herself and not as clever as she would like to think, but in all that she makes up for a memorable and rare character. As are all of them, by the way. This play provides a great cast of slighlty heightened but very relateable people, whose lives fall into pieces through Ibsen's usual revelation of their life lies. But it's subtly done here, understated and hinted, making the play sneaky and more surprising than Ibsen's plays normally are. Even the inevitable female suicide in the end is more an act of taking matter in one's own hands than one of desperation. All in all, surely one of Ibsen's finer plays. Can't wait to see it on stage.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I can't decide whether to hate Hedda or feel pity for her… She is one of the most conniving women I have ever read about, yet she doesn't seem to get any enjoyment out of it. I would love to see this on the stage.