The Wild Duck: Full Text and Introduction

By Henrik Ibsen

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price
Should the truth be pursued, whatever the cost? The idealistic son of a wealthy businessman seeks to expose his father's duplicity and to free his childhood friend from the lies on which his happy home life is based.
Henrik Ibsen's play The Wild Duck, considered a masterpiece of modern tragicomedy, was premiered in January 1885 at Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, Norway.
This English translation by Stephen Mulrine is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, with a full introduction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Oct 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788501828

Henrik Ibsen

Born in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright and poet, often associated with the early Modernist movement in theatre. Determined to become a playwright from a young age, Ibsen began writing while working as an apprentice pharmacist to help support his family. Though his early plays were largely unsuccessful, Ibsen was able to take employment at a theatre where he worked as a writer, director, and producer. Ibsen’s first success came with Brand and Peter Gynt, and with later plays like A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Master Builder he became one of the most performed playwrights in the world, second only to William Shakespeare. Ibsen died in his home in Norway in 1906 at the age of 78.

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Reviews for The Wild Duck

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. The fatal flaw of hubris makes Hialmar into a tragic anti-hero with Gregers as his well-meaning but evil nemesis.

[takeitorleaveit_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Swan Lake+Bizzare Love Triangle = Ibsen's The Wild Duck. At first a dull tale turns into a riveting one about deceit, sorrow, greed, despair and misunderstanding. A life goal would be to direct Ibsen's brilliant play in a post-modern adaptation.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The tragedy of this play is not that truth is revealed. It is that there is no saving human love. Gregers is like a blast of unfeeling idealism. Not only does he see what is true, but he refuses to accept any truth that doesn't fit his conception of "how" humans should behave. He wants lies exposed not to bring resolution and closeness, but to "punish" bad behavior. The ironic thing about this play is that Hjalmar doesn't really care about the truth until he is forced to - and even then, if Gregers had left things alone, there are clear signs that Hjalmar would have been talked back into his regular life. It is only his daughter that bears the full brunt of the tragedy.

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having also read Roshersholm, I see why The Wild Duck is oft cited as one of his best.