The Quintessence of Ibsenism

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

George Bernard Shaw, a playwright with a few bones to pick of his own, undertakes a surgical analysis of the social philosophies underlying the work of Henrik Ibsen. Focusing his analysis on Ibsen's challenge to the conventional "ideals" which both Ibsen and Shaw consider the greatest evils in human society, Shaw summarizes and exposits sixteen of Ibsen's plays, seizing the opportunity to elucidate some of the principles dearest to himself. Some of the most striking passages reveal Shaw's radical feminist perspectives, some of which resonate as if a half-century ahead of their time. A fascinating revelation of the minds of two great and revolutionary writers (it's not always obvious whose voice is exactly whose), this always-timely book exposes hypocrisies still poisoning Society in the twenty-first century. - Summary by Expatriate

Genre(s): Literary Criticism, Philosophy

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Author's Prefaces (1913 & 1889) Expatriate
00:18:40
Play 02 I. The Two Pioneers Expatriate
00:30:08
Play 03 II. Ideals and Idealists Expatriate
00:18:19
Play 04 III. The Womanly Woman Expatriate
00:24:47
Play 05 IV. The Autobiographical Anti-Idealist Extravaganzas, Pt. 1 (Brand, Peer Gynt) Expatriate
00:18:25
Play 06 IV. The Autobiographical Anti-Idealist Extravaganzas, Pt. 2 (Emperor & Galilean) Expatriate
00:25:40
Play 07 V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 1 (League of Youth, Pillars of Society, Doll's House) Expatriate
00:16:13
Play 08 V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 2 (Ghosts, Enemy of the People) Expatriate
00:23:37
Play 09 V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 3 (Wild Duck, Rosmersholm) Expatriate
00:18:56
Play 10 V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 4 (Lady from the Sea, Hedda Gabler) Expatriate
00:19:23
Play 11 VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 1 (Master Builder) Expatriate
00:14:01
Play 12 VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 2 (Little Eyolf) Expatriate
00:18:44
Play 13 VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 3 (John Gabriel Borkman) Expatriate
00:12:06
Play 14 VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 4 (When We Dead Awaken) Expatriate
00:18:34
Play 15 VII. The Lesson of the Plays Expatriate
00:21:35
Play 16 VIII. What is the New Element in the Norwegian School? Expatriate
00:22:07
Play 17 IX. The Technical Novelty in Ibsen's Plays, Pt. 1 Expatriate
00:12:55
Play 18 IX. The Technical Novelty in Ibsen's Plays, Pt. 2 Expatriate
00:16:39
Play 19 X. Needed: An Ibsen Theatre Expatriate
00:07:53