John Gabriel Borkman

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

4.4

Word count: 148K 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.John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik IbsenAuthor: Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Jul 8, 2006

Editor's review

John Gabriel Borkman is one of Ibsen's late masterpieces. It portrays a financier imprisoned for embezzling deposits who, after release, still fantasizes about making a comeback; his tense relationships with his wife, his wife's sister, and his son form the core of the play. The drama drives conflict through a closed indoor setting and gradually revealed past events; the dialogue is sharp and the symbolism rich, offering a cold, profound analysis of ambition, guilt, self-deception, and family fractures. This Project Gutenberg English edition lets readers encounter Ibsen's dialogue rhythms and character voices in the original, making it suitable as an introduction to or rereading of his late plays. While reading, note how images such as "illness," "inheritance," and "the bank" serve the unfolding of character relationships, and consider reading it alongside The Wild Duck and The Master Builder to appreciate the author's consistent late-career concern with the theme of the idealist's downfall.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in Ibsen's late plays who wish to read the original text
Drama students studying Nordic theater or modern play structure
General readers who enjoy plays about family conflict and psychological revelation
Theater practitioners and translators seeking English script material

Not a good fit for

Casual readers looking for light, happy-ending plots
Beginners unaccustomed to the play format who need continuous narrative
Readers who only want Ibsen's biography without reading the works themselves

Reading tips

Read the whole play first, then go back to map character relationships and key props and clarify the threads of past events
Read aloud or try reading by roles to feel the pauses and subtext in Ibsen's dialogue
Read alongside The Wild Duck and The Master Builder to observe the continuity and variation of his late themes
After reading, consider how the indoor setting hints at power relations among the characters

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 English electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg, with the main text in English, suitable for readers who can read English plays. For comparison, you may find a reliable Chinese translation to read alongside, but note that character names may differ across translations.

Can I read this directly without having read other Ibsen works?

Yes. The play has a concentrated cast and limited settings and stands on its own without prior knowledge. However, it is a late work with a more symbolic and psychological style; reading mid-career classics such as A Doll's House first will make it easier to grasp the shifts in his writing.

Is this play suitable for stage production?

The script has concentrated settings and a small cast, with conflict driven by dialogue, making it suitable for small theater or classroom rehearsal. In production, pay attention to the subtext and the cold atmosphere of the lines; avoid treating it as a melodramatic, heated quarrel.

What background knowledge is helpful for reading?

Some knowledge of late nineteenth-century Norwegian society and finance helps but is not essential. More important is to note the recurring threads of illness, inheritance, and fantasies of comeback, which together motivate the characters' behavior.

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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.