Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was indeed a strange man. As a person he was insecure, shy and humble – but also generous, shrewd and brilliant. He ingratiated himself into royal circles and raged against the authorities; was reserved one moment, demanding the next.

As a writer he was searching, vivid, innovative and ingenious. The contradictions within him were many – vanity and anarchism, servility and sovereignty. He was both suspicious and a loyal friend; domineering and yet kind.

He experienced an intense longing for life, but devoted himself entirely and absolutely to his work.

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was the son of a bankrupt merchant from Skien. He lacked any formal education or familial support, but still ended up renewing the genre of drama for an entire world. From a literature which had so far described the passions of kings and princes in great sweeping romances, he created a drama in which the same conflicts devastated ordinary people in familiar surroundings. Henrik Ibsen created the drama of the middle classes.

Winner of the Riksmål Society Literature Prize 2019