An Enemy of the People: A New Version by Christopher Hampton

by Henrik Ibsen, Christopher Hampton (Translator)

Overview

An Enemy of the People concerns the actions of Doctor Thomas Stockmann, a medical officer charged with inspecting the public baths on which the prosperity of his native town depends. He finds the water to be contaminated. When he refuses to be silenced, he is declared an enemy of the people. Stockmann served as a spokesman for Ibsen, who felt that his plays gave a true, if not always palatable, picture of life and that truth was more important than critical approbation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571194292
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	02/26/1998
Series:	Faber Plays
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.33(d)

About the Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) has been described as 'the father of modern theatre'. Most of his early plays were traditional historical dramas. After 'Peer Gynt', a fairy-tale fantasy in verse, Ibsen wrote the rest of his plays in prose, and came to be regarded as the great Naturalist dramatist.

Christopher Hampton is a highly successful British dramatist. His work for the Royal Court included Total Eclipse (1968) and The Philanthropist (1970). An accomplished linguist, his adaptation include Uncle Vany (1970), Hedda Gabler (1970) and A Doll's House (1971). His best known recent work has been his adaptaion of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos.

Editorial Reviews

An unequivocal triumph.” —Times Literary Supplement (London)

“Christopher Hampton's new version of the text is also a revelation . . . An Enemy of the People has been reborn as a passionate current debate about the value of the individual . . . The dust has been blown off the original text, and it will not settle for a long time . . . There is a vitality, vehemence and victory here against the odds.” —Spectator (London)

“More than any revival of Ibsen's plays I've seen, it creates a sense of place vital to the theme . . . An Enemy of the People is little short of superb, for it gives us both a big, rich, public play and the private drama of two men locked in rivalry that probably goes back to the playpen . . . You want an unforgettable picture of the idealist at his most necessary yet impossible? Here it is.” —The Times (London)

From the Publisher

More than any revival of Ibsen's plays I've seen, it creates a sense of place vital to the theme . . . An Enemy of the People is little short of superb, for it gives us both a big, rich, public play and the private drama of two men locked in rivalry that probably goes back to the playpen . . . You want an unforgettable picture of the idealist at his most necessary yet impossible? Here it is.

The Times (London)

Christopher Hampton's new version of the text is also a revelation . . . An Enemy of the People has been reborn as a passionate current debate about the value of the individual . . . The dust has been blown off the original text, and it will not settle for a long time . . . There is a vitality, vehemence and victory here against the odds.

Spectator (London)

An unequivocal triumph.

Times Literary Supplement (London)