Ibsen, Henrik.

first edition, 8vo (185 x 115mm.), contemporary marbled boards, calf lettering-piece, uncut, extremities rubbed, lettering-piece slightly chipped

cf. PMM 375 (the 1890 Copenhagen edition); Elias Bredsdorff (ed.), Sir Edmund Gosse's Correspondence with Scandinavian Writers (Copenhagen and London, 1960), p.44ff.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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The true first edition of one of the greatest ever classics of world drama. As Edvard Munch's painting The Scream was the defining visual masterpiece of the age, so his fellow Norwegian Henrik Ibsen's play (produced three years earlier) remains the great defining stage work of the period, ushering in one of the theatre's first truly developed neurotic female protagonists, almost a decade before Freud's first work of psychoanalysis.

One of only twelve copyright copies; the later 1890 Copenhagen edition published by Gyldendal was "briefly preceded by one consisting of twelve copies only printed in London in Norwegian, suggested and supervised by Edmund Gosse, under a well-intentioned illusion that this was necessary for copyright reasons" (PMM). Gosse had encountered some poems of Ibsen's while in Norway in 1871 and was responsible for introducing Ibsen's works to an Anglophone audience. The Scottish literary critic William Archer was similarly responsible for translating and producing Ibsen's works for the English stage, from 1880 onwards, to both acclaim and outrage.

This copyright edition contains the same text sheets as the Copenhagen edition, with a title-page added with the London imprint; in this copy, the half-title appears after the main title-page, presumably because it was all part of the Copenhagen printing, unlike the main title-page which was printed in London by Heinemann. The version with the London imprint was published on 11 December 1890, just five days before the Copenhagen edition, with the intent of securing English copyright. Heinemann subsequently issued early copyright editions of The Master Builder (1892), Little Eyolf (1894/5) and John Gabriel Borkman (1896).

An English translation of Hedda Gabler was made by Gosse himself and published by the same Heinemann in January 1891, barely a month after the original Norwegian version; indeed, Heinemann had paid Ibsen £150 for sending the proof-sheets from Gyldendal so that Gosse's translation would be ready as quickly as possible. However, William Archer had also been working on a translation for his series of Ibsen's prose dramas, but Heinemann claimed to have the copyright to publish the English translation, because he had published the first Norwegian edition. This led to a public spat between Gosse and Archer, in which Gosse's limitations as a translator were revealed. Archer's translation was finally published in the autumn of 1891.

We have only been able to locate four copies of this edition: in the British Library, the National Library of Norway, the Taylor Institution Library of Oxford University and Harvard University Library (Gosse's copy).