Books by Henrik Johan Ibsen

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - DR. STOCKMANN'S sitting-room. It is evening. The room is plainly but neatly appointed and furnished. In the right-hand wall are two doors; the farther leads out to the hall, the nearer to the doctor's study. In the left-hand wall, opposite the door leading to the hall, is a door leading to the other rooms occupied by the family. In the middle of the same wall stands the stove, and, further forward, a couch with a looking-glass hanging over it and an oval table in front of it. On the table, a lighted lamp, with a lampshade. At the back of the room, an open door leads to the dining-room. BILLING is seen sitting at the dining table, on which a lamp is burning. He has a napkin tucked under his chin, and MRS. STOCKMANN is standing by the table handing him a large plate-full of roast beef. The other places at the table are empty, and the table somewhat in disorder, evidently a meal having recently been finished.)

Should you always tell the truth, no matter what the personal cost? In Henrik Ibsen's classic play, An Enemy of the People, Dr. Tobias Stockman discovers that the town's health spa water is contaminated. When he announces this, he is at first hailed as a hero by his fellow citizens. But his campaign to have the spa closed for repair threatens the economy of the town, and Dr. Stockman finds himself an enemy of the people, facing hostility and ridicule for insisting on telling a truth that others do not want to hear. Written as a response to his own critics, Ibsen's 1882 fable has modern echoes, hailing the courage of those willing to stand against the crowd.