About the work
Henrik Ibsen began Little Eyolf in the summer of 1894 in Christiania and sent the finished manuscript to his publisher that October; the play was published by Gyldendal on 11 December 1894 in an edition of 10,000 copies that sold out quickly. The first complete stage production, and the German-language premiere, took place on 12 January 1895 at Berlin’s Deutsches Theater under Otto Brahm, in a translation by Ibsen’s son Sigurd; the Norwegian premiere followed three days later in Christiania, with Ibsen in attendance.
Plot
At the Allmers family’s home by a fjord, Alfred Allmers has abandoned his philosophical treatise to devote himself to his paralysed nine-year-old son Eyolf. A mysterious ‘Rat-Wife’ lures the boy to the water, where he drowns. The loss plunges Alfred and his wife Rita into crisis, out of which they resolve to devote themselves to the poor children of their district.
Cultural significance
The Scandinavian press responded almost unanimously positively, and the Berlin production played to full houses despite mixed reviews. The play is regarded as one of Ibsen’s most searching works on parenthood, guilt and the tension between self-fulfilment and responsibility for a child.