Master Builder Solness

Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 127K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Konstruestro Solness by Henrik IbsenAuthor: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906,Language: Esperanto, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Nov 18, 2006

Editor's review

The Master Builder is a late representative work by Ibsen. Through the encounter between the architect Solness and the young woman Hilda, it examines ambition, guilt, and the cost of creation. This Gutenberg edition is an Esperanto translation, suitable for readers studying the history of Ibsen's reception or comparing translations in different languages. The play is dense with symbols—towers, castles in the air, the past fire—and readers should pay attention to the subtext of the characters' dialogue and the spatial imagery. It is not long, suitable for immersive reading in an afternoon, and then rereading key passages against a Chinese or Norwegian original.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Ibsen's late symbolic plays who want to compare translations beyond the original
Intermediate and advanced learners of Esperanto who wish to consolidate the language with a literary text
Scholars or students studying the reception history and translation dissemination of Nordic drama

Not a good fit for

General readers unfamiliar with Esperanto who only want to follow the plot easily
Beginning readers expecting a modern Chinese translation or a detailed annotated edition

Reading tips

First read a Chinese translation to understand the plot, then read this Esperanto edition, comparing characters' monologues and symbolic passages.
Keep pen and paper to note where images such as the tower, the fire, and Hilda appear, and summarize their meanings after reading.
If you know basic Esperanto, choose the dialogue between Solness and Hilda and read it aloud sentence by sentence to feel the tone and rhythm.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this book without knowing Esperanto?

You can read it with a dictionary and a Chinese translation for comparison, but reading it directly is quite demanding. Esperanto grammar is regular and word formation uses affixes; once you are familiar with the basics, looking up words is less burdensome. Absolute beginners should first read a Chinese translation and then use this edition for comparison.

Does this edition have annotations or an introduction?

Project Gutenberg ebooks usually provide only the main text, without scholarly annotations or an introduction. For background information, consult biographies of Ibsen or studies of his drama to supplement knowledge of the symbolic system and the period of composition.

Why read the Esperanto translation rather than a Chinese one?

The Esperanto translation can serve as a comparative version for observing how different languages handle Ibsen's symbolic language and subtext. It suits readers studying translation or interested in language transfer; for ordinary reading, a reliable Chinese translation is still recommended.

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About the author

Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906 Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian playwright best known for his problem plays on social issues. His works often center on marriage, family, gender roles, and individual freedom, exposing the contradictions beneath respectable surfaces through tight dialogue and steadily unfolding plots. The collection holds 51 of his works, including A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, and Rosmersholm, as well as dramatic collections and translations into Finnish and Esperanto. Written in a realistic style, these plays probe their characters' inner lives, with spare dialogue rich in subtext, and helped shape modern European drama; they are still staged worldwide. Because public information is limited, biographical details are omitted here.