The Project Gutenberg eBook, John Gabriel Borkman, by Henrik Ibsen,
Translated by William Archer

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Title: John Gabriel Borkman

Author: Henrik Ibsen

Release Date: July 8, 2006 [eBook #18792]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN***

E-text prepared by Douglas Levy

The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen, Volume XI

JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN.

by

HENRIK IBSEN

Translation and Introduction by William Archer.

INTRODUCTION.*

The anecdotic history of _John Gabriel Borkman_ is even scantier than
that of _Little Eyolf_. It is true that two mentions of it occur in
Ibsen's letters, but they throw no light whatever upon its spiritual
antecedents. Writing to George Brandes from Christiania, on April
24, 1896, Ibsen says: "In your last letter you make the suggestion
that I should visit London. If I knew enough English, I might
perhaps go. But as I unfortunately do not, I must give up the idea
altogether. Besides, I am engaged in preparing for a big new work,
and I do not wish to put off the writing of it longer than necessary.
It might so easily happen that a roof-tile fell on my head before I
had 'found time to make the last verse.' And what then?" On October
3 of the same year, writing to the same correspondent, he again
alludes to his work as "a new long play, which must be completed as
soon as possible." It was, as a matter of fact, completed with very
little delay, for it appeared in Copenhagen on December 15, 1896.

The irresponsible gossip of the time made out that Bjornson
discerned in the play some personal allusions to himself; but this
Bjornson emphatically denied. I am not aware that any attempt has
been made to identify the original of the various characters. It need
scarcely be pointed out that in the sisters Gunhild and Ella we have
the pair of women, one strong and masterful, the other tender and
devoted, who run through so many of Ibsen's plays, from _The Feast at
Solhoug_ onwards--nay, even from _Catalina_. In my Introduction to
_The Lady from the Sea_ (p. xxii) it is pointed out that Ibsen had the
character of Fol