HEDDA GABLER: A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS

New York: John W. Lovell & Co, 1891. FIRST AMERICAN PRINTING. No. 49 OF 100 COPIES of the Large Paper Edition. 210 x 165 mm. (8 1/4 x 6 1/2"). xv, 236 pp.Translated from the Norwegian by Edmund Gosse.
Contemporary chocolate brown three-quarter morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with lily-of-the-valley sprig at center, volute cornerpieces, gilt titling, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. With frontispiece photogravure portrait of Ibsen, and two photo-mezzo-type pictures of actresses Miss Robins and Miss Lea in their roles in the London production. Front pastedown with bookplate of Henry Horner; front free endpaper with small gift inscription in green ink, dated 1923. PMM 375 (Norwegian Edition). ◆A VERY FINE COPY, with just a small, isolated dent to fore-edge of upper board; the contents extremely clean and fresh.

This is a limited, Large Paper Copy of Ibsen's most famous play, very rare both institutionally and in commerce, with visually pleasing wide margins, tall proportions, and charming plates. "Hedda Gabler" tells the story of a strong-willed woman marooned in a marriage to a boring pedant, and the destructive results that follow when she refuses to accept society's role for her as the supportive wife. Britannica notes that this play "is remarkable for its nonjudgmental depiction of an immoral, destructive character, one of the most vividly realized women in dramatic literature." Although Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) began his career in the Romantic vein, he became a pioneer of the realist style, and each later play concentrates on the troubled psyche of a protagonist caught between individualism and social pressure. It is not an overstatement to say that Ibsen revolutionized the theater; PMM notes that "[his] influence on the whole course of modern drama may be indicated by the inclusion of his plays in the repertoire of every avant-garde theatre of his day." Our American edition is surprisingly rare on the market, with no copy listed on RBH in the last 50 years..