The Quintessence of Ibsenism: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Quintessence of Ibsenism, credited to George Bernard Shaw, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Quintessence of Ibsenism by George Bernard Shaw. Read in English by Expatriate George Bernard Shaw, a playwright with a few bones to pick of his own, undertakes a surgical analysis of the social philosophies underlying the work of Henrik Ibsen. Focusing his analysis on Ibsen's challenge to the conventional "ideals" which both Ibsen and Shaw consider the greatest evils in human society, Shaw summarizes and exposits sixteen of Ibsen's plays, seizing the opportunity to elucidate some of the principles dearest to himself. Some of the most striking passages reveal Shaw's radical feminist perspectives, some of which resonate as if a half-century ahead of their time. A fascinating revelation of the minds of two great and revolutionary writers (it's not always obvious whose voice is exactly whose), this always-timely book exposes hypocrisies still poisoning Society in the twenty-first century. - Summary by Expatriate

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Quintessence of Ibsenism
• Author credits: George Bernard Shaw
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 19
• Listed recording duration: 5:58:42

Catalogue topics

• ibsen
• modern drama
• Scandinavian literature

Track guide

1. 01 - Author's Prefaces (1913 & 1889) — 18:40
2. 02 - I. The Two Pioneers — 30:08
3. 03 - II. Ideals and Idealists — 18:19
4. 04 - III. The Womanly Woman — 24:47
5. 05 - IV. The Autobiographical Anti-Idealist Extravaganzas, Pt. 1 (Brand, Peer Gynt) — 18:25
6. 06 - IV. The Autobiographical Anti-Idealist Extravaganzas, Pt. 2 (Emperor & Galilean) — 25:40
7. 07 - V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 1 (League of Youth, Pillars of Society, Doll's House) — 16:13
8. 08 - V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 2 (Ghosts, Enemy of the People) — 23:37
9. 09 - V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 3 (Wild Duck, Rosmersholm) — 18:56
10. 10 - V. The Objective Anti-Idealist Plays, Pt. 4 (Lady from the Sea, Hedda Gabler) — 19:23
11. 11 - VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 1 (Master Builder) — 14:01
12. 12 - VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 2 (Little Eyolf) — 18:44
13. 13 - VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 3 (John Gabriel Borkman) — 12:06
14. 14 - VI. Down Among the Dead Men: The Last Four Plays, Pt. 4 (When We Dead Awaken) — 18:34
15. 15 - VII. The Lesson of the Plays — 21:35
16. 16 - VIII. What is the New Element in the Norwegian School? — 22:07
17. 17 - IX. The Technical Novelty in Ibsen's Plays, Pt. 1 — 12:55
18. 18 - IX. The Technical Novelty in Ibsen's Plays, Pt. 2 — 16:39
19. 19 - X. Needed: An Ibsen Theatre — 7:53

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.