The Master Builder

Description

The Master Builder is a play by Henrik Ibsen, first published in 1892. With its first performance in 1893 in Berlin, The Master Builder is one of Ibsen's more significent works. It tells the story of Halvard Solness, a Norwegian master builder who has a good reputation among the locals in the small town where he lives. One day, Hilda Wangel, a young woman who Solness met briefly when she was thirteen years old, arrives at his house to remind him of this meeting. Eventually she moves in with him to assist in household duties, and becomes more and more supportive of his work. Not having a good relationship with his wife, Solness becomes closer to Hilda.

The inspiration for Hilda was a young woman with whom Ibsen had a brief affair and who was known for her delight at stealing other women's husbands. The play also holds autobiographical elements that parallel Ibsen's own situation as a master playwright - with one of the beliefs shown in the play being that a man cannot achieve success without paying a price.

This edition includes an introduction by one of the translators, William Archer.

Part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World set.

This book has 29,279 words, 112 pages in the PDF version, and was originally published in 1892. This is a translation by Edmund Gosse and William Archer.

Production notes: This ebook of The Master Builder was published by Global Grey on the 11th May 2021. The artwork used for the cover is 'The Art Student' by Thomas Eakins.