A Doll's House

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

5.0

Word count: 146K words
Chapters: 15

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. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. Author: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906. Language: English. Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures. Release Date: Mar 29, 2005

Editor's review

A Doll's House is Ibsen's best-known social-problem play, following Nora's journey from a sheltered "doll" to a woman who sees the reality of marriage and the law and finally walks out. The play's power lies not in intricate plotting but in dialogue that peels away the respectable surface of a middle-class home: her husband Torvald's warmth and selfishness, Nora's past forgery, and Krogstad's blackmail all point to the same question—whether a person has the right to live for herself. This Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain English eBook, convenient for reading alongside the original. It suits a focus on theater history, women's writing, or nineteenth-century European literature, and works well as a text for script readings or classroom discussion. It is short but dense with dialogue; first-time readers may be carried along by the plot, and only on rereading will they notice how Ibsen plants reversals in everyday language. Watch for the repeated word "miracle"; it is the key clue to understanding Nora's psychological turning point.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in dramatic literature and Ibsen's work
Readers concerned with women's circumstances and marriage
Students who need an English script for classroom discussion or readings
Those who want a short classic as an entry into nineteenth-century European literature

Not a good fit for

Novel readers expecting long narrative or complex scene description
Readers who accept only Chinese translations and do not want to read the English original
Those who find family-ethics debate and dialogue form tedious

Reading tips

Read the whole play once for the plot, then go back and read the dialogue between Nora and Torvald in Act Three closely.
Mark the passages where "miracle" appears and compare them with changes in Nora's attitude to grasp her psychological turning point.
If using it in class, read in groups and discuss whether Nora's departure has only one reasonable interpretation.
After finishing, read contemporary reviews of Ibsen's plays to understand how social-problem drama works.

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

Is this edition in Chinese or English?

This is the public-domain English eBook released by Project Gutenberg; the text is in English, not a Chinese translation. It suits readers with some English reading ability who want to compare with the original. If you want to read only in Chinese, you will need to find a Chinese translation elsewhere.

Can I understand it without experience reading drama?

Yes. The cast is small, the setting is concentrated, and the plot moves clearly. Start by focusing on the conflicts in the dialogue; you need not pursue stage directions and symbolism from the outset. Looking back after finishing, you will find many planted clues.

Why is Nora's departure so often discussed?

Because the play offers no simple answer. Nora's departure is both an awakening and a leaving behind of home and children, and Ibsen leaves the judgment to the audience. This openness is exactly why the play continues to provoke debate about marriage, law, and individual freedom in different eras.

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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.