John Gabriel Borkman
Ibsen wrote John Gabriel Borkman in Christiania in 1896. The play is partly based on material he had become acquainted with a whole generation earlier. In the Christiania of the 1850s there was a court-case against a senior officer. He was found guilty of fraud and committed to prison with hard labour for four years. After his years in prison he cut himself off completely for many years, and is said not even to have spoken to his wife. Ibsen heard of the case during his first stay in Christiania (1850-51) and followed up the officer`s subsequent fate - as far as he could - during his second period in Christiania (1857-64).
Another, closer, source of inspiration for Ibsen`s work with John Gabriel Borkman was Georg Brandes` monumental work on Shakespeare, of which Ibsen read at least parts in the summer of 1896. Brandes` angle on Shakespeare was strongly influenced by some of Nietzsche`s ideas. Two central concepts in his philosophy, those of the superman and the will to achieve power, play a large part in Ibsen`s play. It is uncertain whether Ibsen read texts by Nietzsche, but there is absolutely no doubt that he read about Nietzsche, in Brandes` work among other works.
We assume that Ibsen began to plan John Gabriel Borkman some time during 1895, but the actual writing was not started until the summer of 1896. In the spring Georg Brandes had invited Ibsen to London. In a letter dated April 24th, 1896, Ibsen refused this invitation on the following grounds,
among others:
"In addition, I am busy preparing a big new piece of work, and I do not want to postpone this any longer than necessary. I might easily be hit on the head by a roof-tile, you know, before I «had time to make up the last verse». And then what?"
The first draft and the ensuing working out of John Gabriel Borkman are dated as follows:
First draft
| |
Starting date |
Finishing date |
| Act 1 |
July 11th |
July 24th |
| Act 2 |
July 25th |
August 10th |
| Act 3 |
August 11th |
August 20th |
| Act 4 |
August 21st |
August 26th |
Working out
| |
Starting date |
Finishing date |
| Act 1 |
August 27th |
September 15th |
| Act 2 |
September 16th |
September 29th |
| Act 3 |
September 30th |
October 10th |
| Act 4 |
October 11th |
October 18th |
Only two days later, on October 20th, Ibsen sent the final copy of the manuscript to his publisher, Jacob Hegel. Thus the writing of the fair copy must have taken place at the same time as the working out of the play.
First edition
The Gyldendal edition
John Gabriel Borkman came out on December the fifteenth, 1896, at Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn) in Copenhagen, Christiania and Stockholm, and consisted of 12 000 copies, up to then the largest first edition of any of Ibsen`s works. This was not enough, however, and on account of a large number of advance orders, the book had to be reprinted in a further 3 000 copies, even before it was on sale. Thus the first and the second issues were released simultaneously.
Its reception was good for the most part.
The Heinemann edition and others
As had been the case with Hedda Gabler (1890), The Master Builder (1892) and Little Eyolf (1894), the English publisher William Heinemann published John Gabriel Borkman in a "mini-edition" in Norwegian (12 copies) in London in order to secure his copyright. This took place on December 12, 1896, three days before the Gyldendal edition. Shortly after the original edition, translations of the play came out in English, French, Russian and German.
First performance
The first public performances of John Gabriel Borkman were in the form of readings. The first one took place at the Avenue Theatre in London on December 14th 1896, and was arranged by William Heinemann in order to secure his copyright in England. The following day, December 15th 1896, there is said to have been a reading at the Copenhagen Municipal Teachers` Association, led by the theatre director P. A. Rosenberg.
The first professional stagings of John Gabriel Borkman took place in Helsinki on January 10th 1897 at two theatres: Svenska Teatern and Suomalainen Teaatteri (the Finnish theatre). Both these productions seem to have been well received by their audiences and the critics.
Other productions in January were:
- Frankfurt am Main (January 16th)
- Copenhagen Workers` Free Theatre (January 17th)
- August Lindberg`s tour company, Drammens Theater (January 19th)
- Christiania Theater, Christiania (January 25th)
- Vasateatern, Stockholm (January 25th)
- Deutsches Theater, Berlin (January 29th)
- Det Kongelige (Royal) Theater, Copenhagen (January 31st)
The play was Ibsen`s greatest success in the theatre since A Doll`s House.
By Jens-Morten Hanssen / ibsen.net