Description

New edition of the translation by Ad. Chennevière and H. Johansen, first published by Albert Savine in 1892.

The publication of this second edition by Stock follows Lugné-Poe's first stagings in France of the two plays contained in the book: The Lady of the Sea - at Les Escholiers, Paris, 16 December 1892. An Enemy of the People - at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre, 12 December 1893.

The translators also added a paragraph to the preface of the first edition: "In publishing this new edition, we wish to mention the name of Mr Lugné Poe, the intelligent director of L'Oeuvre. It is well known that he was the first to stage the two plays contained in this volume, and that he has demonstrated a very fine understanding of Ibsen's genius. He has also sent us notes he took from the master's text."

L'The book is packed with a number of letters and autographed documents by Lugné-Poe and translator Adolphe Chennevière :

- two autograph manuscripts by Lugné-Poé detailing the casts, places and dates of the first performances of the two plays (one on the back of a theatre letterhead from The Workone with erasures and corrections)
- two autograph letters signed by Lugné-Poe :

"[to Adolphe Chennevière] - L'Ennemi du peuple will be easy compared to that. It's the work of a nigger! I am sending you the book in Danish. Send it back to me as soon as you've finished it. You can follow my notes very well for the Danish. Because of this very hard work I am now, as you offered me, very anxious that my name should appear under and after yours."
"Probably to the publisher] I'll come by the bookshop tomorrow, the day after tomorrow at the latest. It's true that I have various things to submit to you for the reprint".

- three autograph letters signed by Adolphe Chennevière :
"Johansen is recovering from illness but will complete and send him his work as soon as possible. Lugné sent me his notes yesterday on the Lady with the enclosed letter. I replied that as the authorisation to translate had been given to J. and myself, it might be a disadvantage to have a 3rd name on the cover, but that I would dedicate the preface to him in a postscript and put his name at the head of the two plays with the sacramental formula: Represented for the 1st time in France etc etc. That's your opinion, isn't it. I named you in the letter, because you also told me that Prozor might not accept a new name which would give this re-release too much the appearance of a new work, 'librairement' speaking. We'll see how he responds. Finally, if you give me some advice, I'll do whatever you want. I even offered L. something of my royalties on the first two thousand. Poor royalties! What's left of it? I'll have a look at L.'s notes and take what I think I should, everything, a lot or nothing."
"I'm going to write to Johansen and ask him to get to work straight away and send me a revised copy - I'm also going to get one for myself (mine is bound and I want to keep it) and I hope we'll soon have a definitive text. Now, we haven't said anything yet about copyright. Remember that we received 10f a month. 350 fr in all. And that we got nothing from the next 2,000 that Savine and Gravilier admit to having printed (at least). Nor did I get anything for the copies that you took back and sold. So don't you think that for the editions you are going to make, we should increase the ordinary royalties a little - unless you prefer that I give you full ownership of the right to publish and republish my translation as long as you like, for a sum to be fixed, paid once and for all as of now [...]".

The last letter is addressed to Lugné-Poe, informing him of the postal return of his extensively annotated work by Ibsen.

Nice outfit.