“…af stort est du kommen”. Henrik Ibsen og Skien (Acta Ibseniana Vol. 8)

Abstract

In 1882 Georg Brandes wrote a portrait of Ibsen in which he stated that the author had been born “i smaa og fattige Forhold i en lille norsk By” [in petty and poor circumstances in a small Norwegian town]. The portrait was later included in Brandes’ Det moderne Gjennembruds Mænd (1883). Thanking Brandes for the portrait, Ibsen could not resist commenting on what he took to be a devaluation of his background: