New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-21
Henrik Ibsen the ban, as STUeaIed
IN His Letters.

LETTERS or HENRIK dFs IT, T M91isd by
pp 60. FOX, DuEieid & Co
The portrait which Ibsen has drawn OF hiinseif.
building it UP with more or less unconscious
LITTLE touches that go TO the making of a mans
letters. has value probably unsupported by
those most likely to hail it as a boon To the
Ibsente it must remain. OF course. simply the
precious portrait &C a genius. To the disinter-
ested observer Z offers Il conclusive revelation
o. the truth lying beneath that impressive dra-
perry m which the Norwegian playwright's ad-
nlirers have sought to trick him out. TO
make him look Ike monumental figure. AS
matter OF fact, there is nothing monumental
nothing heroic, about Ibsen; he has none OF the
traits OF the inspired leader of thought AS a
captain of revolt he serves under commission
conferred by hmseIf-to recall an old phrase
CT Lowelrs--and confirmed by followers whose
authority is scarcely equal to their fervor. One
thing in the present volume that Immediately
supports s1is view of the matter is its prodigious
dulness- Ibsen, if we are to believe his hero
plants. is nothing if not a man of ideas, ana
while it is. of course, a fair assumption that he
has deliberately saved himself for his plays, 1t
IS incredible that really powerful mind should
have corresponded for years with sympathetic
and clever friends without ever rising to a level
Of really suggestive thought Yet that is what
period from October 1S49. to December. 1900
In spite of the tone of hero worship pervadng
tire long Introduction which John Nilsen Laurvik
and Mary Morrison, the transators, have pre-
fixed to this volume, we shall not be surprised if
the publication turns out to be anything
source of benefit to Tbsen's fame.
The relations of this colossal egotist with
tain of his contemporaries have inspired awe
IN some quarters. In the introduction aforesaid
there is TO record Of a remarkable per
sonal relationship than that between Ibsen and
Bjornson,' which seems to us a rather por-
tentous way Of mentioning the matter. Much
IS also made of Ibsen's friendship with Brandes.
The inference that all this has been significant
OF Tery important intellectual transactions
seems TO unsound On the whole. and es
pecially with these letters under consideration.
il might more fairly be asserted that Ibsen and
his intimates have kept a mutual admiration
society going with great assduity from far
back III the 40's. and that its exercises have
been of much less moment the world than
its latter-day historians would have US sup
pose This collection of letters makes reason
ably adequate biographical sketch and from it
TIE salient incidents Of Ibsen's career may
easily be drawn The young apothecarys ap-
prentice of Grimstad began life with literary
enthusiasms Curiously. he seems, to have had,
IN those days. a sense of humor. He was at
odds with some of the townsfolk because he
had dangerous trick of making comic verses
about them: and his carcatures, too We're
source of annoyance to many worthy men, But
the chief Impression we get from his earlier
letters is one of a young man taking himself
with terrible seriousness, and soon winning
friends who ready to accept hi at MS
own valuation. Thenceforth he presents the
spectacle of g profoundly reflective but not
necessarily creative individual; conscious or the
spirit of unrest in the world, and sincerely de-
sirous of helping his fellow men through his
art but never even dimly aware Of the fact that
he lacks the necessary qualifications. There is
q kind of pathos about the glinpses he occa-
sionaIIy gives his correspondents of the state
Of his mind. Writing to Bjornson from Rome,
in 1856. he speaks Of the happiness ne mas
found in his work dramatist and ADDS; /
felt the exaltation of a Crusader" Looking at
his life and achievements in their length and
breadth there is something almost grotesquely
fncongruous about the idea.
It is homogeneous because. by the association
of ideas. the crusading type means to us.
among other things, some nobility of mind ana
that the pestiferous plays forbid our attributlng
TO Ibsen. We are not unmindful of the artists
insistence upon the gulf between himself ana
his art a gulf which mankind is forbidden TO
cross, but which it will go on bridging, never
theless and we gladly reproduce lpsen S pro-
test I'm the matter. In a letter TO Sophus
Schando-ph he says apropos Of the reception
of one Of his plays:
y-as o,,ite prepared for the hubbub. If GER
tain of or Scandinavian reviewers have no talent
for ANYTHING else, they have an uDquestonao!e
talent for thoroughly misunderstanding and mis-
snterpreting those authors whose books they I'M
oertake 10 Judge =.
etan6ing2 Have many of these n1lsrepresenta
lions and distortions been presented TO the puohc
nv writers fully aware OF their being such? can
hardly think otherwise r. A..
They endeavor to make me responsible for the
orinions which certain of the personagcs OF my
6Tama express. And yet there is not in the whoie
book an opinion. single utterance which can De
cara to avoid this. The method, the technique
F the construction itself entirely precudes the
.r,brr,s appearing in the speeches. My intention
s-as IN produce the impression in the MIND OF the
-ea6eT that he was witnessing something real
1tT[v nothing would more efectually prevent slcn
IN .I,7nression than the insertion or the author
,sri1afa opinioas in the dialogue Do they ms
55,,aire AZ hons that 1 have not enough or the
5s.rnztic instinct 70 be aware or thlsE VI course,
or1 aurare Of it and act accordingly Ana IN no
n+i,er nIay which have written IS the aulHor SUCH
~ outsider so entirely absent as IN TINS one:
l,,oen they say that the book preacnes nlhHisIi-
7, docs not It breaches nothing at all II meIeI9
1870 ont that there is ferment or nhillsLn
Under the surface at home az esewhepEa ana o Iis
;r Inevitable A Pastor Manders VIII aiWays rouse use
y Ms GIving TO revolt And just because she