The Contemporary Reception of Little Eyolf and its Presentation in Henrik Ibsens Skrifter

With its broad presentation of the contemporary reception of each of Ibsen’s dramas, Henrik Ibsens Skrifter (HIS) certainly represents a giant step forward compared to its predecessor Hundreårsutgaven (HU, The Centenary Edition). On the whole, the reception chapters in the introductions provide students and scholars with thorough accounts of how the printed editions of the plays were received and read in Scandinavia. In fact, with some of these chapters filling 20 pages or more (cf. the introductions to Hedda Gabler in HIS 9k and When We Dead Awaken in volume 10k), the extensiveness becomes a problem in itself, raising the question of whether one should present highlights from the reception, a representative selection, or lock, stock and barrel. On closer inspection, it is obvious that there is an inconsistent practice when it comes to form, structure and content of the reception chapters in HIS. Unfortunately, no clear principles were laid down from the outset concerning what to include and how to present the reception of the written plays. These problems regarding the reception chapters of HIS, are discussed in the first part of this article. In the second (last) part, I will comment in detail on HIS’s presentation of the reception of one of the plays, Little Eyolf (LE), published in 1894 and the last but two of Ibsen’s dramas. For several reasons, LE is particularly interesting in the history of Ibsen reception, not least because this relatively obscure play, unlike some of the more celebrated Ibsen dramas, actually received generally positive reviews in its time.