The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen ed. by James McFarlane (review)

Book Reviews The most vivid, powerful essays - that is. those I enjoyed reading both because they taught me something new and were so well written - are those by H. Porter Abbon and Keir Elam. Abbott's "Beginning again: the post-narrative art of Tex(sjor nothing and How it is" asserts that "Beckett's deliberate abandonment of the very practice that had worked so well in the trilogy ... its masterful deployment of the quest" was necessary to "save his art" and create the "radical newness" of Texts, and goes on to show how How it is, a travestied epic, is part of the same project of dismantling narrative expectations. Abbott's belief that the function or language is to express the largest, deepest problems is supported by his own rich and very readable prose. Elam's essay, "Dead heads: damnation -narration in the 'dramaticules,to, argues that Beckett's tiny late plays "constitute ... the most intense and disquieting body of texts conceived for the twentieth-century stage." He identifies the Dantean imagery of the tete-morte in Not I and then traces it through six of the drarnaticules which followed, using Gustave Dare's illustrations for the biferno as a hugely persuasive iconographic context. This excellent essay has much to offer both the scholar and the student. The Cambridge Companions to Literature series made still another anthology of essays on Beckett inevitable, although the need for this book, when there are already so many good books like it, eludes me. Pilling's Preface does little to clarify the volume's aim. nor does the order of the essays seem to build any particular way of reading the canon. The immediate assets are a detailed chronology of Beckett's life as well as substantiallists of "Recommended Reading" following each article. TOBY sn.VERMAN ZlNMAN, nm UNIVERSITY OFlHE ARTS JAMES MCFARLANE, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press '994. Pp. xxvi. 271. $59.95. $,6.95 (PB). There are now thirteen volumes in The Cambridge Companions to Literature series, from a Companion to Old English Licerature to a Companion to Beckett. The Cambridge Companion co Ibsen is, thus, in very good company. The sixteen essays by distinguished Ibsenites (Norwegian, English, Swedish, Danish, American, and Canadian) compose, in my view, the most helpful selection of Ibsen studies now available in English. Seven of the essays deal directly with the dramatic texts: AsbjllSm Aarseth. "Ibsen's dramatic apprenticeship"; Bj0m Hemmer, "Ibsen and historical drama"; John Northam, "Dramatic and non-dramatic poetry"; Robin Young, "Ibsen and comedy"; BjllSm Hemmer, "Ibsen and the realistic problem drama"; Janet Garton, ''The middle plays"; and Inga-Stina Ewbank. "The last play." Six essays deal with the plays in performance: James McFarlane, "Ibsen's working methods"; Simon Williams, "Ibsen and the theatre 1877-1900"; Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, "Ibsen and the twentieth-century stage"; Arthur Miller. "Ibsen and the drama of today"; John Barton, "On staging Ibsen"; and Egil Tornqvist, "Ibsen on film and television." Book Reviews 243 One important contemporary approach is considered: Gail Finney, "Ibsen and feminism ." Finally, there are two concluding essays very helpful to the student: Errol Durbach , "A century oflbsen criticism," and Sandra Saari, "Works ofreference." The book is valuable in four other ways. An annotated listing of eleven illustrations is provided. (We might wish for more if we did not have Daniel Haakonsen's lavishly illustrated volume: Henrik Ibsen: mennesket og kunsteren.) A brief "Preface" situates the English texts in The Oxford Ibsen, 8 vols. (London, 1<)60-77) and the Norwegian texts in Sam/ede Verker, Hundrearsutgave, 22 vals. (Oslo, 1928-57). A detailed and all but faultless "Chronology" of Ibsen's life and work follows. Finally, there is a publication and early perfonnance history of each play. Here we learn, for example, that the first performance of Gengangere took place in Norwegian in Chicago on 20 May 1882. Typos are almost non-existent. I did find a mix-up of dates in the second end-note on p.88; we have Emigrantlitteraturen reprinted (1871) before it was published (1872). On p.SY we have "leading's society's" rather then "leading society's". The contributors to the volume constitute a galaxy of stars of Ibsen criticism. Although the individual essays differ widely in style and form, there is not a single weak essay in the collection. They range from the highly technical study of Ibsen's working methods by James McFarlane to Janet Garton's informal interview with John Barton on his staging of The Pillars of Society, The Vikings at Helgeland, and Peer GYnl. Other dramatic media (film and television) are explored by Egil Tornqvist. Film opens up many different approaches to Ibsen to which we can readily respond today and even more in the future. All the essays are in English - good English. One never gelS a whiff of translatorese in the contributions by Aarseth, Hemmer, and Tornqvist. How happy for.the non-Norwegian reader to have at hand some of the best Norwegian critical writing on Ibsen! Would that more could be done! Important works of Francis Bull, Daniel Haakonsen, Edvard Beyer, Harald Noreng, and Ase Lervik await translation. It is manifestly impossible to comment on all the essays contained in the volume. Each is worthy of inclusion for a different reason. All were written especially for the Cambridge Companion and represent the best contemporary Ibsen scholarship. Regretfully , the work of several important scholars is not represented. But all that is included is of great value to students of Ibsen. We can only be profoundly grateful to James McFarlane and his co~contributors. CHAR.LES LELAND, ST. MlCHAFJ,.'S COll.EGB, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ...