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Ghosts Audiobook
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(3.01) - 4,033 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
In Henrik Ibsen's controversial play Ghosts, dysfunction and hidden pasts are suddenly and painfully exposed as wealthy widow Mrs. Alving prepares to open a new orphanage in memory of her seemingly beloved husband. Her treasured son Oswald's return from Paris and her relationship with old friend Pastor Manders are no longer the source of joy they once were, as secrets are turned into a frightening and desperate reality.
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"It's hard to imagine the kind of effect a play like this had on its audiences when it was first performed. The subjects dealt with are still the stuff of sidelong glances and judgmental gossip to this day, and Ibsen's sometimes annoying (to this modern reader, anyway) habit of never allowing his characters to come out and say anything clearly seems to me a testimony to the degree to which he was breaking taboos even by writing "Ghosts." But for all its Victorian stuffiness of expression and circumlocution, this is still a powerful and fascinating play to experience."
— Ben (4 out of 5 stars)
Ghosts Listener Reviews
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" My least favorite Ibsen play but it's still Ibsen. "
— Tajma, 1/31/2014 -
" As always, the sins of the father visit the son. "
— Bogdan, 1/27/2014 -
" A little masterpiece! A tight structure with many references to Oedipus... It's about art and incest - two very interesting subjects, I think! "
— Anne, 1/27/2014 -
" Not as good as A Doll's House, but a pretty good play in its own right. "
— Chandler, 1/11/2014 -
" Spare and dark. Genius. I love this play. "
— SmarterLilac, 1/11/2014 -
" Ibsen knows people- he is a real people person "
— Chris, 1/2/2014 -
" It was a really good play. A little melodramatic in parts, but you can see what Ibsen was doing. Very enjoyable. "
— Cathy, 12/28/2013 -
" Again, Ibsen is great at building up a sense of dread for the outcome of the play. In this case, though, it seemed kind of forced. "
— Ellee, 12/18/2013 -
" I loved the discussions of morality and the use of irony. "
— Daphne, 12/15/2013 -
" Interesting ideas. Character's were very real and very annoying. "
— Ryan, 12/6/2013 -
" Just reading this was unsatisfactory, need to see this on stage - asap. "
— Heleen, 12/1/2013
About Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was a major nineteenth-century Norwegian playwright, theater director, and poet. He is often referred to as “the father of prose drama” and is one of the founders of modernism in the theater. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll’s House, Ghosts, The Wild Duck, and The Master Builder. Several of his plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theater was required to model strict mores of family life and propriety. Ibsen’s work examined the realities that lay behind many façades, revealing much that was disquieting to many contemporaries. It utilized a critical eye and free inquiry into the conditions of life and issues of morality.
About various narrators
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, and the Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by the New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty. She lives in New York.