Ghosts and Other Plays

by Henrik Ibsen and Ibsen

Book Overview

The plays in this volume focus on the family and how it struggles to stay together by telling lies - and exposing them. In "Ghosts", Osvald Alving returns home only to discover the truth about the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140441352
• Release Date: June 1964
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

One of the greatest European playwrights

Ghosts and Other Plays is a seminal series of plays that combine humor with scathing social critique. Ibsen was not afraid to tackle weightier themes and taboos, in order to shock his audience out of their complacency. These plays demonstrate Ibsen's loathing of hyprocrisy, soulless institutions, the mandates of society which cause suffering (ie. Christianity). He has also been perceived as the figurehead for the emancipation of women from their traditional "place." That is not to say Ibsen is of dire seriousness or dry. His plays move quickly, the events in "Ghosts" for ex. occurring in less than a day. Ibsen is a great playwright whose works remain relevant and vital, in a consumerist society where people still remain afraid to defy cultural norms.