...is now online at The Objective Standard. Sprinchorn’s book provides a fascinating and insightful look at the enigmatic writer’s work, in the context of the man’s life and the events to which Ibsen was responding. Excerpt:
Ibsen was famously unpleasant, even misanthropic, with a streak of vanity that led him to connive for awards from European royalty. He sometimes even wore his medals while sitting around the house. And he had a tendency toward feuds and rivalries, which a century and a half later seem like petty distractions. Yet he also was a man of devout principles. When he hated, he hated with all his heart—and nothing disgusted him more than cowardice, hypocrisy, and compromise. At the same time, he grasped the subtleties of people’s motives so profoundly that his works often reveal layers of sympathy and understanding.
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