2023
Henrik Ibsen.
The Man and the Mask
“This Ibsen-biography shares the quality of its subject: It is unsurpassable. Anybody with the slightest interest in literature should indulge in a meeting with the most important Norwegian contribution to world literature: The works of Henrik Ibsen. Outside of the plays themselves, there is no better place to start than Ivo de Figueiredo’s biography. In particular the balance between narrative and interpretation, the different aspects of the biographical account, is masterfully executed.”
Tom Egil Hverven, Klassekampen
Although the literature on Henrik Ibsen is enormous, most of the texts analyse his works, whereas the biographical and historical aspects of his life and work have received less attention. Admittedly, there are several biographies on Ibsen, most of them written by literati. However, up until now, no Ibsen biography fulfills all of the three essential requirements for biographies: to be well researched, well written and well updated. Previous titles often content themselves with forwarding established myths about Ibsen’s life. De Figueiredo has gone the long way to archives and other sources in order to reconstruct a wholly new and independent history on Ibsen’s life, thus managing to interweave the Man, the Author and his Works in one single narrative
Ivo de Figueiredo
