George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of Ibsenism

Peter Christopher Grosvenor (Pacific Lutheran University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1891

Places

England (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Commentary / Criticism (literary)
Essays/ Lectures (any)

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The Irish playwright, art critic, and socialist polemicist George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent interpreter and promoter of Ibsen’s realist drama and the radical individualism and philosophy of self-actualization it embodied. Shaw was introduced to Ibsen’s work in 1883 via a chance encounter in the Reading Room of the British Museum with the Scottish theatre critic William Archer, who had translated Ibsen’s work from the original Norwegian. Shaw’s extended essay

The Quintessence of Ibsenism

appeared in 1891. Written against the general background of the controversies sparked by Ibsen’s plays following their appearance on the London stage in the late 1880s, Shaw’s essay was the first published English language study of Ibsen’s work. It…

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4875 words

Citation: Grosvenor, Peter Christopher. "The Quintessence of Ibsenism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7514, accessed 24 November 2024.]

George Bernard Shaw, The Quintessence of Ibsenism

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