This first volume in the complete Ibsen collection gathers three early masterworks from the Norwegian dramatist's formative years: "Lady Inger of Östråt," "The Feast at Solhoug," and "Love's Comedy." Written in the 1850s, these plays reveal a young genius already grappling with the tensions that would define modern drama: love against duty, ambition against morality, individual desire against social expectation. "Lady Inger of Östråt" weaves a tense historical tapestry of political intrigue and forbidden love in 16th-century Norway, while "The Feast at Solhoug" explores romantic passion trapped within the conventions of honor and patronage. "Love's Comedy" offers sharper satirical wit, dissecting marriage and social performance with a cynicism that foreshadows Ibsen's later revolutionary works. Together, these plays document the making of a dramatist who would fundamentally alter the landscape of Western theater, showing his apprenticeship with Romantic tradition before his radical departure into realism.
