Henrik Johan Ibsen (March 20, 1828 – May 23, 1906) was an influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of the modern realistic drama (dubbed "the father of modern drama"). It is said that Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Despite spending much time in exile, living in Germany and Italy, Ibsen is held to be one of the greatest Norwegian author of all times, being celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians, and as one of the most important playwrights in world history.

His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many façades, possessing a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many contemporaries.

Ibsen largely founded the modern stage by introducing a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality. Victorian-era plays were expected to be moral dramas with noble protagonists pitted against darker forces. Every drama was expected to result in a morally appropriate conclusion, meaning that goodness was to bring happiness, and immorality only pain. Ibsen challenged this notion and the beliefs of his times and shattered the illusions of his audiences.

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L.A. Times - Books & Talks

'The Second Plane' by Martin Amis
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
September 11: Terror and Boredom IT would be too easy to read Martin Amis' slim book on Sept. 11 in a day and to dismiss it with a politically correct glare. The dozen essays, columns and reviews and two short stories in "The Second Plane: September 11, Terror and Boredom" are more illuminating than that, though deeply, sometimes self-indulgently flawed.
'The House of Widows' by Askold Melnyczuk
Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Family secrets lie at the end of a dark and twisted path FROM its puzzling opening line ("The most common grammatical error is the lie"), there's an ominous vibe to Askold Melnyczuk's third novel, "The House of Widows," and the sense of unease lingers until the final sentence. It's a mysterious, masterfully taut story in which dread plays a prominent role.
'Marco Polo' by Laurence Bergreen
Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700
An account of the adventures of the celebrated 13th century world traveler. MARCO POLO was only 17 when he departed for China in 1271 with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. Those two merchants of Venice were known to the boy primarily as storytellers of their fabulous exploits, writes award-winning biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen, for they had been absent more than 16 years, Marco's entire childhood. The pair had followed trade routes east, encountered exotic countries and customs and survived many perils; they had even lived for a time at the court of Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol Empire. Eventually they agreed to accompany his emissary west to the pope, vowing to return to Cambulac (Beijing) with several items the Great Khan had requested.

NYT > Books

Children’s Books: The Greatest’s Story, Told Twice
Mon, 12 May 2008 15:42:56 -0000
Two handsome new books for different age groups take on the formidable challenge of telling the story of Muhammad Ali’s epic life.
Children’s Books: Earth to Young People: Help!
Sat, 10 May 2008 01:28:12 -0000
A “family encyclopedia of ecology” and the first book by “the MySpace community” spell out environmental threats and suggest action to help.
Children’s Books: When We Last Saw Our Heroes ...
Sat, 10 May 2008 12:57:15 -0000
Sequels to the popular children’s books “Not a Box,” “Zen Shorts” and “Little Pea” — plus the latest in Mo Willems’s “Pigeon” series.

Fiction & Poetry

Thirteen Hundred Rats
T. Coraghessan Boyle Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 -0000
There was a man in our village who never in his life had a pet of any kind until his wife died. By my calculation, Gerard Loomis was in his mid-fifties when Marietta was taken from him, but at the ceremony in the chapel he looked so scorched and . . .
Songs of a Season
Maureen N. McLane Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 -0000
for here or to go-- a glass mug, a paper cup-- life is fast, art slow only a few years before all that I am blows free, subatomic not for me that life the careless joy of the dog not for me that leap how to say beautiful weekend in . . .
After Love
Jack Gilbert Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 -0000
He is watching the music with his eyes closed. Hearing the piano like a man moving through the woods thinking by feeling. The orchestra up in the trees, the heart below, step by step. The music hurrying sometimes, but always returning to quiet, like the man remembering and hoping. It . . .

London Review of Books

Gazillions · Neal Ascherson: Organised Crime
Karabas was gunned down in 1997. He and his mob had taken over the port city of Odessa as law and order disintegrated in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. One might call his reign a comprehensive protection racket. But, looked at in another way, Karabas became the only reliable source of authority and social discipline. He arbitrated the city's commercial disputes (10 per cent of net profits was his price); he kept the drug peddlers to one area of Odessa, and prevented the horrific people-smuggling in the harbour district from infecting the rest of the town. Using a bare minimum of thuggery, he kept the peace. Karabas seldom carried a gun. Everyone looked up to him, and levels of violence stayed lower in Odessa than in other Russian and Ukrainian cities. His murderers were probably Chechens hired to break Odessa's grip on the local oil industry, a grip coveted by Ukraine's then president, Leonid Kuchma, who 'during his ten years in power . . . presided over the total criminalisation of the Ukrainian government and civil service'.
An Element of Unfairness · Ross McKibbin on the Great Education Disaster
The modern history of English secondary education begins with the 1944 Education Act, usually known as the Butler Act. It was, for better and worse, the most important piece of education legislation of the 20th century, but was expected to reform an educational system already deeply divisive and inequitable. In some ways it promoted the hopes of wartime democracy; in others it betrayed them. It raised the school-leaving age to 15 and made secondary education universal and free. It equalised the payment of teachers in all state secondary schools and devised procedures by which nearly all the religious elementary schools were incorporated into the state system. It didn't specify what kind of secondary education local authorities should establish, and as a result they fell back on what already existed and what conventional opinion thought appropriate: grammar schools for the academically inclined, junior technical schools for those with superior technical aptitudes and secondary moderns for those of a 'practical' turn of mind.
Kick over the Scenery · Stephen Burt on Philip K. Dick
When an art form or genre once dismissed as kids' stuff starts to get taken seriously by gatekeepers - by journals, for example, such as the one you are reading now - respect doesn't come smoothly, or all at once. Often one artist gets lifted above the rest, his principal works exalted for qualities that other works of the same kind seem not to possess. Later on, the quondam genius looks, if no less talented, less solitary: first among equals, or maybe just first past the post. That is what happened to rock music in the late 1960s, when sophisticated critics decided, as Richard Poirier put it, to start 'learning from the Beatles'. It is what happened to comics, too, in the early 1990s, when the Pulitzer Prize committee invented an award for Art Spiegelman's Maus. And it has happened to science fiction, where the anointed author is Philip K. Dick.

Guardian Unlimited Books

Stuart Jeffries talks to US writer Andrew Sean Greer about his latest novel, The Story of a Marriage
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Praised for his 'perfumed, dandified style', Andrew Sean Greer is one of America's finest young writers. He tells Stuart Jeffries about the family secret that inspired his latest novel, The Story of a Marriage
John Crace's digested read: Crime by Irvine Welsh
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
The digested read: He starts mumbling - Weedgie nonce, Weedgie nonce
Henrietta Rose-Innes wins £10,000 Caine prize
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
July 8: The South African writer won the award for the best short story in English by an African writer with Poison, a haunting vignette of the 'new' South Africa

NPR Topics: Books

Roxy Music History 'Re-Makes' The Rock Bio Form
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Michael Bracewell's history of Roxy Music doesn't go for conventional thinking — not about the band, and certainly not about how to write a rock biography. Instead, his new book combines art history, music theory and a smashing sense of fashion.
What Wildlife Lurks In Central Park By Night?
Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:41:00 -0400
Bats and owls and moths, oh my! A new book by journalist Marie Winn explores New York's Central Park when the sun goes down. She discovers the animals that play in the shadows and the mysteries that make the park come alive in the twilight.
Author Learns To Leave Well Enough Alone
Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:57:00 -0400
Jennifer Traig knows a thing or two about hypochondria. The good news is she doesn't actually have heart disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis or any other condition she's diagnosed herself with.

Slashdot: Book Reviews

Head First C#
samzenpus Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:24:00 -0000
Michael J. Ross writes "For computer programmers who do not have a solid understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP), learning the C# programming language can be rather challenging, even if they have experience with C or C++, which at least would give them a head start over non-C programmers. Any developer in this situation may well want to begin the learning process with a book that aims to teach both OOP and C# in as gentle a manner as possible, with plenty of patient explanations and illustrative diagrams — such as those found in the book Head First C# by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene." Read below for the rest of Michael's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dungeons and Desktops
samzenpus Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:30:00 -0000
Aeonite writes "Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-playing Games chronicles the rise and fall of the Computer RPG industry, from Akalabeth to Zelda and everything in between. While the bulk of the book is devoted to the genre's 'Golden Age' in the late '80s and early '90s, author Matt Barton explores the entire history of CRPGs, from their origins in the mid '70s to the very recent past. While not entirely comprehensive, the book covers not only the major players and award-winners, but also dozens of obscure 'also-ran' as well as notable games in related genres." Keep reading for the rest of Michael's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Apps Hacks
samzenpus Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:58:00 -0000
stoolpigeon writes "It seems that it wasn't long ago that Google was just a search company. The number of on-line products that fly under the Google moniker, today, is impressive. Google has moved well beyond its office-suite-like applications and excelled with everything from mapping to blogging to 3-D drawing. Google Apps Hacks is a new book from O'Reilly, published in conjunction with their Make magazine. This volume presents the reader with 141 hacks in an attempt to get the most out of a wide array of Google's on-line applications. The result is a quick ride that is rather fun — and while a bit shallow at times, it provides a great overview of just how much is available out there." Read below for the rest of JR's review.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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