Henri Ibsen
(One way to captre the spite of Henrik Thien ~ che desmatit who
dominated the ealy moders movement as no other writer did =i
tm oa drawing by a fllow-Norwegin, the painter Edvard Monch
‘A morbid and introverted ace, Munch wat a punter of darkne and
Yih, of painful slCanalysis and of the én vital His famous panting
“The Shout’ was a grim cry of pain that kept on resounding through
twenteth-
re plans ing angel writen in Germany. the reflective ne tae
ae indvideatien moa coming after the rete to Norway:
ee age dows Ten profoundly alert othe ea of he dy. He
Tot ave kept many Books inhi one, and he was no man OF
Tteany groups and movement, hat he was an aid cbirwet lve
ere rrenspapers, an atenive analyst of behaviour, ad 21a
‘Sayin touch with the conics win hime As be one sid
Hee se 6
"Everyihing tha! have writen it most minutely connected with what
T have lived throughs Every new work kas had for me the objet of
terug nea process of spiritual iberaton, for every evan sare he
‘pom andthe gil ofthe society £9 which he belongs
rans Tosen le Taly for Southern Germany, and would spend
noavof the nex twenty Yea firstin Dresden and then in she Havarion
rei of Munich. Ast happened, the Deen he now moved wn
sre home to Dowoevsky, who va writing The Pessesd in bis wal
fighr Gon the sutores ad his credor, The wo wees never
rim Jar were ofcn to be compared a5 ceatrs of the made (apie
resgrnces aan age of upheaval Tse's move mean » sew and
Taft rlon to dhe Germanic culture chat, 8 8 Norwegian nation,
Te had once espe. Though bs plays were egulrly poblised
a orany, tas German deste tha would establish the bss of Mis
easel recgnition. And it was now ~infiuenced no dou by
ea German air he sid, but aso by the trong winds of nee
aacal dco tha were blowing though ie— that his work besa”
fomove toward de spit we call Natura,
ine many. movements, Naturals was made up of conficting
sean, a tool e developed in France, andthe leading figure
vremtnlle Zo, wha said of his nove that "T have done om ving
vies the work of analysis which surgeons perform on corpses’ The
vel sess an experimental oes, he si bu experimental in he
nue data siete or medical sody san experiment. Heredity has
we lawn, lke weight! he wrote Ibsen acknowledged many of the
vost maeras and tern ideas that went with dhe ene
aoe wh we apenkof hi a « Natrabist we ustlly mean dhe
cnrrordinary and immediate effet of his plays they come off the
ve nifty were life elf We also mean thee awareness of the
we Pblems of the ime, and hi ses dha al Be an evolsionary
wreak, Naturale Mets oie in Germany, apd were 20 m=
eee reason for ehe ready reception Tbsen was to reccve im
wand eae stength of his influence over other plarights To
ses Uke Bernard Shas. Ives and Naturalis were alas
“gun mesh the ame, bur dat was oe quite how i appeared 10
eTI EIIISSSE=T”~
6 ‘The Modern World
BO Te ode wnt
Yer he wat taken by many of the ides of anew, accntie and
radical reals that lurshed in the early 1870s ip Germany and
Scandinavia. Thus Georg Brandes took up the movement atid argued
ina famous lecture series at Copenhagen Univesy in 18 that “A
lterarre in our day shows i i alive by aking up problem for di
sion” When be sent copies of the lees, ten responded exe
sively, ying that no more dangerous book cou fill nto the hands
ofa pregnant vite: "lis one of ehore books that eta yawning gulf
between cody and yesterday." They merin Dresden and fad lng tks
Which Brandes reconded. Ibsen described Scindinavia a outie the