Description
For sale: a Rare and Exceptional first hardcover edition, first printing of The Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, with no dust jacket. First US Edition unstated, 1889 D. Appleton, New York. First printing with no subsequent printing and 1889 on the title page. Four pages of ads at rear.
The book is in Very Good condition with lightly soiled boards with faded title ink on a sunned spine and strong ink on the front title block. The spine title is not legible. Also with, clean top page block, deckled edges on side and bottom, tight binding, moderate spine tilt, rolled spine ends, heavy edge wear, and rubbed and rounded corners. The interior of the book is also in Very Good condition with the previous owner’s name on the front paste down. No other marks, inscriptions, or other signs of ownership inside. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and evenly toned.
No dust jacket.
The Doll’s House, written two years after The Pillars of Society, was the first of Ibsen’s plays to create a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play, and required reading in many secondary schools and universities. The play was highly controversial when first published, as it is sharply critical of 19th Century marriage norms. It follows the formula of well-made play up until the final act, when it breaks convention by ending with a discussion, not an unravelling. It is often called the first true feminist play, although Ibsen denied this.
Thin volume s
