Little Eyolf
Little Eyolf was written in 1894, while Ibsen was living in Victoria Terrasse in Christiania. The planning started in the autumn of 1893. In a letter to Jacob Hegel, dated September 18th 1893, Ibsen wrote:
"I have now begun to plan a new drama, which I intend to complete during the coming summer. I find it easy to work here, and it is very pleasant having one's own independent home".
A letter to his daughter-in-law Bergliot Ibsen shows that he started writing on June 14th 1894. The first thorough working through is dated as follows:
| |
Starting date |
Finishing date |
| Act 1 |
(unknown) |
July 10th |
| Act 2 |
July 11th |
July 24th |
| Act 3 |
July 25th |
August 7th |
Ibsen then made a large number of corrections and changes in the first draft, before making a fair copy. Several central points were only included in the final version, for example Eyolf's handicap and Almers' expression "the law of transformation". The completed fair copy of the manuscript was sent to the publisher on October 13th 1894.
First edition
The Gyldendal edition
Little Eyolf was published by Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Copenhagen and Christiania on December 11th 1894 in 10 000 copies, which sold extremely well, and were soon sold out. Only ten days later, on December 21st, another 2 000 copies were published, and 1 250 on January 20th 1895.
The Heinemann and other editions
As had been the case with Hedda Gabler (1890) and The Master Builder (1892), the English publisher William Heinemann published Little Eyolf in a "mini-edition" of 12 copies in Norwegian in London, in order to secure the copyright. This took place on the same day as the Gyldendal edition, December 11th 1894. Translations into English (by William Archer), French (by Moritz Prozor) and German (by Ibsen's son Sigurd) also came out on that day, in London, Paris and Berlin respectively.
The play's reception by the Scandinavian press was almost exclusively positive.
First performance
The first performance of Little Eyolf was at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin on January 12th 1895. The production was directed by Otto Brahm, who had recently been appointed director of the theatre. The parts of Alfred and Rita were played by Emanuel Reicher and Agnes Sorma. The production played to full houses and received a great deal of attention, though its reception was mixed among audiences and critics.
The first performance in Norway was at the Christiania Theater on January 15th, with Ibsen present in the audience. Alfred, Rita and Asta were played by Nicolai Halvorsen, Ragna Wettergren and Johanne Dybwad respectively. 36 performances were given in the course of 1895.
Other productions of the play in January and February were at:
- Den Nationale Scene, Bergen (January 21st)
- Svenska Teatern, Helsingfors (January 21st)
- Albert Ranft`s Theatre Company, Gothenburg (January 30th)
- Teatro Manzoni, Milan (February 22nd)
- Burgtheater, Vienna (February 27th)
By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net