Book Bearings
Cover of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House

  • 112 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1889
  • 255 editions
  • Free to read

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

A Doll's House (Danish and Bokmål: Et dukkehjem; also translated as A Doll House) is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 20 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play is set in a Norwegian town c. 1879.

The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who, at the time in Norway, lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world. Despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play, it was a great sensation at the time and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society.

In 2006, the centennial of Ibsen's death, A Doll's House held the distinction of being the world's most-performed play that year. UNESCO has inscribed Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of A Doll's House on the Memory of the World Register in 2001, in recognition of their historical value.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: a play and a short read.

  • Relationships
  • Marriage
  • Social science
  • Family relationships
  • Drama
  • Wives
  • Husband and wife
  • Women's rights

2 Read it free, right here

A free scan from the Internet Archive opens right here on the page, with no sign-up.

Read it on the Internet Archive

3 About Henrik Ibsen

1828–1906

Henrik Johan Ibsen (; Norwegian:; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright. He is considered one of the world's pre-eminent writers of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama". He pioneered theatrical realism but also wrote lyrical epic works.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

4 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment