Facts

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler was the last of Ibsen`s plays to be published while he was living abroad. It was written in Munich in 1890.

It is uncertain when Ibsen first had the idea that resulted in Hedda Gabler. In the summer of 1889 he was in Gossensass - this was his last stay in this small Alpine village in the Tyrol. It was here that he made the acquaintance of 18-year-old Emilie Bardach from Vienna. His relationship with her culminated in his falling in love with her in spite of the great difference between their ages. After Emilie Bardach`s return to Vienna and Ibsen`s to Munich, they wrote a number of letters to each other. In one of these, dated October 7th 1889, Ibsen writes:

"A new work is taking form within me. I will complete it this winter and will try to bring some of the cheerful atmosphere of the summer into it. But it will end in sadness. I can feel it. That is how I am.”

It is not certain whether Ibsen is referring to Hedda Gabler here, or to another play that was never completed. In another letter to Emilie Bardach, dated November 19th 1889, he writes:

"I am very busy at present working on my new play. I sit at my desk almost the whole day long. Only go out for a short while in the evening. I dream and mull over my memories and then I go on writing.”

However, there is no clear indication that Hedda Gabler is in process in this letter either.

A fairly large amount of material on Hedda Gabler - notes, sketches of plans, drafts - has been preserved, but most of it is undated. The first draft is entitled "Hedda". The first act is undated, but the second act was begun on August 13th 1890. At one point Ibsen put this draft aside and on September 6th started on a fresh draft of the second act. The rest of this draft is dated as follows:

  
Other dates in this manuscript show that on October 22nd the fair copy of the first act was completed. The next day the fair copy of the second act was begun, and on November 11th that of the fourth act. According to a letter Ibsen sent to August Larsen at Gyldendal in Copenhagen, the fair copy of the play was ready on November 16th 1890.

Quite late in the process of writing the play, Ibsen changed the title from "Hedda" to "Hedda Gabler". In a letter dated December 4th 1 890 to Moritz Prozor, who translated the play into French, Ibsen explained why he had chosen "Gabler" instead of "Tesman":

"In that way I wanted to indicate that as a personality she is to be regarded more as her father`s daughter than her husband`s wife".

Further down in the letter Ibsen writes:

"In this play I have not really tried to deal with so-called problems. My main purpose has been to describe human beings, human moods and human fates on the basis of certain conditions and views prevalent in society".

First edition
The Gyldendal edition
Hedda Gabler was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Copenhagen and Christiania on December 16th 1890 in an edition of 10 000 copies.

The reaction to the book was almost exclusively negative. The critics found nothing but an "enigmatic" and "incomprehensible" female character. There was no suggestion of social reform, nothing edifying, no obvious symbolism. The critics outdid each other in condemning the chief character. In the newspaper Morgenbladet Alfred Sinding-Larsen wrote:

"All in all, Hedda Gabber can hardly be called anything but a sinister creature of the imagination, the author`s own creation of a monster in the shape of a woman, without any corresponding model in the real world".

The Heinemann edition
In fact Gyldendal was not the first to publish Hedda Gabler. On December 11th 1890 the English publisher William Heinemann issued the play in London - in the original language - and in only 12 copies. He did the same in the case of all Ibsen`s subsequent plays.

The background for this was that Heinemann had noted Ibsen`s growing popularity in England. He had at last become a success there, almost two decades after his introduction by the literary critic Edmund Gosse. A production of A Doll`s House at the Novelty Theatre in Kingsway marked his breakthrough in the theatre. The play was directed by an Irishman, Charles Charrington, and the part of Nora was played by Janet Achurch. The first night was on June 7th 1889 and was of enormous importance in establishing Ibsen`s reputation in England. On the publishing side William Archer was working on his English edition of the complete plays of Ibsen. The first volume came out in November 1890.

Heinemann was interested in securing the copyright for the publication of Hedda Gabler in England. He offered Ibsen £150 for this, and the offer was accepted. In order to establish his copyright Heinemann first published the play in the original and then - on January 20th 1891 - in Edmund Gosse`s English translation.

First performance}
Hedda Gabler had its first performance at the Residenztheater in Munich on January 31st 1891. Ibsen was present at the first night, and is said to have been been displeased with the actress who played Hedda, Clare Heese. He thought that her acting was too declamatory. The critics were also reserved in their judgement. The play`s reception by the audience was mixed, with both applause and booing. Those applauding seem to have been in the majority, but this may have been due more to Ibsen`s presence than to the performance itself.

Within a short time the play was produced at a number of theatres:
- Suomalainen Teaatteri (The Finnish Theatre) in Helsinki (February 4th)
- Svenska Teatern in Helsinki (February 6th)
- Lessing-Theater in Berlin (February 10th)
- Svenska Teatern in Stockholm (February 19th)
- Det Kongelige (Royal) Teater in Copenhagen (February 25th)
- Christiania Theater in Christiania (February 26th)
- August Lindberg`s theatre troupe in Gothenburg (March 30th)
- The Vaudeville Theatre in London (April 20th)

By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net