My Alphabetical Biography List: Ibsen, Henrik, 19th century Norweigan playwright

"Ibsen: A Portrait of the Artist," by Hans Heiberg
Not the most exciting book I've ever read, but it was more interesting than Gustav Eiffel, and less tedious than Friedrich Froebel, so that's something. My overall impression of the man is that he was smug and self-centered. I'm pretty sure the only other person he ever truly cared about was his son. He liked having his wife around, too, he just wasn't always sold on her. Also, it seemed that no one actually liked his plays: people were either upset by them or confused by them. One of his plays, Ghosts, addressed how unfair it was that men could philander, but women were expected to be faithful (and also how unfair it was that these poor women had to bear the consequences when their husbands gave them syphilis). One reviewer at the time said, "'97 percent of the people who go to see Ghosts are nasty-minded people, who find the discussion of nasty subjects to their taste in exact proportion to their nastiness.'" Yet somehow Ibsen was considered great even in his own time. I don't understand that. But he gave me an "I" to read, so there you go.