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A review by saareman
Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen
4.0
Public Domain Ibsen
Review of the Public Domain Kindle eBook (March 24, 2011) of the 1911 translation by [a:R. Farquharson Sharp|4796454|R. Farquharson Sharp|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the Dano-Norwegian original playscript (1886).
I read this in parallel with reading Duncan Macmillan's recent adaptation [b:Rosmersholm|45991470|Rosmersholm|Henrik Ibsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561087959l/45991470._SY75_.jpg|1428630] (2019) which is not a direct translation but rather a re-write. Macmillan makes some things more explicit than perhaps Ibsen would have been allowed to do at the time. Those were more explicit hints of the possible sexual liaisons by some of the characters.
Although the Macmillan reads in more contemporary language (for example, the reformers in the original are called "radicals", in Macmillan they are "the Left"), it is still quite surprising how up-to-date the original Ibsen reads. A society at war between the status quo vs. reformers, the idea of someone being "cancelled" by social media (newspapers in Ibsen's day, twitter/x in our present), female empowerment, the loss of religious faith and its replacement by other beliefs, etc. It is all there. In the case of the current 2024 U.S. election you could even imagine the situation being reversed i.e. who is in power i.e. the status quo, in the present day?
The cover of the original 1886 edition published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen, Denmark. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
You can read the R. Farquharson Sharp 1911 translation online at Project Gutenberg here. It is also available as a free Kindle eBook from Amazon.
Trivia and Links
You can read Ibsen's original at the University of Oslo's online archive of Henrik Ibsen's Writings here. With a web translator you could even generate your own translation to edit. You may be as surprised as I was to learn that Ibsen wrote in Danish rather than Norwegian (some sources describe it as Dano-Norwegian). Although the Denmark-Norway union dissolved in 1814, apparently the dominant written language continued to be Danish for a considerable time. Ibsen's works were first published in Copenhagen by the publisher Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag.
Review of the Public Domain Kindle eBook (March 24, 2011) of the 1911 translation by [a:R. Farquharson Sharp|4796454|R. Farquharson Sharp|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the Dano-Norwegian original playscript (1886).
I read this in parallel with reading Duncan Macmillan's recent adaptation [b:Rosmersholm|45991470|Rosmersholm|Henrik Ibsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561087959l/45991470._SY75_.jpg|1428630] (2019) which is not a direct translation but rather a re-write. Macmillan makes some things more explicit than perhaps Ibsen would have been allowed to do at the time. Those were more explicit hints of the possible sexual liaisons by some of the characters.
Although the Macmillan reads in more contemporary language (for example, the reformers in the original are called "radicals", in Macmillan they are "the Left"), it is still quite surprising how up-to-date the original Ibsen reads. A society at war between the status quo vs. reformers, the idea of someone being "cancelled" by social media (newspapers in Ibsen's day, twitter/x in our present), female empowerment, the loss of religious faith and its replacement by other beliefs, etc. It is all there. In the case of the current 2024 U.S. election you could even imagine the situation being reversed i.e. who is in power i.e. the status quo, in the present day?
The cover of the original 1886 edition published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen, Denmark. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
You can read the R. Farquharson Sharp 1911 translation online at Project Gutenberg here. It is also available as a free Kindle eBook from Amazon.
Trivia and Links
You can read Ibsen's original at the University of Oslo's online archive of Henrik Ibsen's Writings here. With a web translator you could even generate your own translation to edit. You may be as surprised as I was to learn that Ibsen wrote in Danish rather than Norwegian (some sources describe it as Dano-Norwegian). Although the Denmark-Norway union dissolved in 1814, apparently the dominant written language continued to be Danish for a considerable time. Ibsen's works were first published in Copenhagen by the publisher Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag.