Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Henrik Ibsen
-
Standard Name: Ibsen, Henrik
The plays of Henrik Ibsen
, nineteenth-century Norwegian poet and dramatist, were both controversial and enormously influential in Britain; their use of realist techniques to address contemporary social problems helped to bring about a revolution in English drama. Elizabeth Robins
and Florence Farr
played important roles in getting his plays staged in England, and Robins interpreted his characters on stage. After the 1889 production of A Doll's House in London, British feminists claimed Ibsen as an ally, and his name became closely associated with New Woman writers such as George Egerton
and Mona Caird
. Githa Sowerby
and Elizabeth Baker
were among the many dramatists influenced by his work.
The Dancing Faun combines elements of melodrama, social realism, and comedy of manners.Grace Travers falls victim to her husband George's schemes to make a fortune by regaining entry into high society through deception and blackmail...
Characters
Romer Wilson
RW
deals here with the problem of language and the effects of society and civilisation on personal choices and relationships, through the adulterous love affair of the EnglishmanRane Smith, who speaks only English, and the...
Education
Christina Stead
CS
's father
would have liked to have her education entirely in his own hands. The first books to be her favourites were the works of W. T. Stead
, and fairy stories by the...
Education
Mary Agnes Hamilton
Women were permitted to attend lectures at Kiel only by express permission from each professor involved. Mary Agnes improved her German, learned a great deal about ancient Greece, and also saw productions of most of...
Education
George Egerton
By adulthood, Chavelita Dunne (later GE
) had already gained proficiency in five or six languages, including Swedish.
Mix, Katherine Lyon. A Study in Yellow: The Yellow Book and Its Contributors. Greenwood Press, 1969.
172
She now taught herself Norwegian and read widely among the Scandinavian authors, including Ibsen
, August Strindberg
Education
H. D.
Following her withdrawal from Bryn Mawr, HD (with Pound
's assistance) embarked on an intensive independent study programme that lasted for five years. During this period she read and studied writers such as William Morris
Family and Intimate relationships
Henry Handel Richardson
A closer friendship formed in Leipzig was that with a young Scotsman, George Robertson
, who was studying for a PhD in German literature. He reawakened Richardson's interest in books and writing, particularly when she...
Family and Intimate relationships
Viola Tree
Throughout her life, VT
took direction from her father, the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
, who had abandoned his job in the family corn-trading business to pursue a career on stage, and had changed...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ella Hepworth Dixon
EHD
described her mother, Marian (MacMahon) Hepworth Dixon
as a woman with innate good taste and good manners; she would be just as amiable to a governess as to a duchess. Her mother held progressive...
Family and Intimate relationships
Sarah Grand
In 1896 SG
described her two stepsons, one of whom was only six years younger than her, as the greatest friends I have in the world.
Grand, Sarah. Sex, Social Purity and Sarah Grand: Volume 1. Editor Heilmann, Ann, Routledge, 2000.
281
Both of them joined the armed forces, and...
Fictionalization
Florence Farr
Ezra Pound
refers to FF
in Canto XXVIII as Loica (i.e. Shaw's Louka): So Loica went out and died there [Ceylon] / After her time in the post-Ibsen
movement.
Pound, Ezra. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. New Directions, 1948.
136
Several critics believe Farr...
Intertextuality and Influence
Teresa Deevy
TD
began writing as a child, producing stories about family doings for her mother and sisters. During her last years at school, from 1911, the school magazine, St Ursula's Annual, featured her stories. Living...
Intertextuality and Influence
E. Nesbit
In this an advanced woman, Nora, smokes as a protest against existing prejudices.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson, 1987.
68
The heroine's name suggests that either Nesbit or Bland had been quick off the mark in digesting the message of Ibsen
Intertextuality and Influence
G. B. Stern
While in her teens GBS
composed two one-act Waiferage plays. The heroine of one, a lonely understudy in a fifth-rate touring company, worships the leading man from afar and feels ecstatic when the leading lady...
Intertextuality and Influence
George Egerton
GE
's realism was influenced by the Scandinavian authors she had read while living in Norway, including Ibsen
, Strindberg
, and Björnson
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Ledger, Sally. The New Woman. Manchester University Press, 1997.
193-4
Mix, Katherine Lyon. A Study in Yellow: The Yellow Book and Its Contributors. Greenwood Press, 1969.
173
Yet her work was also informed by the...
Timeline
1888: Eleanor Marx's translation of An Enemy of...
Writing climate item
1888
Eleanor Marx
's translation of An Enemy of the People by Ibsen
appeared in The Pillars of Society and Other Plays, edited by Havelock Ellis
.
Ibsen, Henrik. “Note”. The Pillars of Society and Other Plays, edited by Havelock Ellis, translated by. William Archer et al., Walter Scott, 1888, p. xxxi.
xxxi
February 1891: Theatre producer and critic J. T. Grein founded...
Building item
February 1891
Theatre producer and critic J. T. Grein
founded the Independent Theatre Society
in London to promote literary rather than commercial plays, and the new drama in particular.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
318
McDonald, Jan. The ’New Drama’ 1900-1914. Grove Press, 1986.
1-2
Autumn 1904 to summer 1907: Under the management of playwright and director...
Ibsen, Henrik. John Gabriel Borkman. Gyldendal (F. Hegel), 1896.
Ibsen, Henrik. Når vi døde vågner. Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn), 1899.
Ibsen, Henrik. “Note”. The Pillars of Society and Other Plays, edited by Havelock Ellis, translated by. William Archer et al., Walter Scott, 1888, p. xxxi.
Ibsen, Henrik. Peer Gynt. Gyldendal (F. Hegel), 1867.
Ibsen, Henrik. Rosmersholm. Gyldendal, 1886.
Ibsen, Henrik, and Alrik Gustafson. Rosmersholm. Translator Jellicoe, Ann, Chandler, 1961.
