Brief description
«If there is to be war, so be it! If I am not a poet, I have nothing to lose. I shall try being a photographer. I shall deal with the present time up there, person by person».
This is what Ibsen wrote in a letter to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, sent from Rome on 9 December 1867 [read the letter in HISe]. He was furiously angry with the Danish literary critic Clemens Petersen's unfavourable review of Peer Gynt, the essence of which was that the work was not poetry.
His intention to have a try at being a photographer was not meant seriously, but all the same the statement is an indication that something new was stirring in Ibsen's writing and that this was realistic contemporary drama. With The League of Youth Ibsen was following Bjørnson's advice to write a satirical comedy. It was in this genre, Bjørnson thought, that Ibsen's «real talent» lay.
In the spring of 1868 Ibsen left Rome and settled in Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian alps, and it was here that he laid the plans for The League of Youth; he started actually working it out in Dresden – the family moved there at the beginning of October the same year. The first draft was begun on 21 October. At this point the title was «The League of Youth or Our Lord & Co.», but Frederik Hegel, his publisher, persuaded him to drop the sub-title; he feared allegations of blasphemy. Ibsen wrote three drafts of the play (the first one is not extant) before he was satisfied. The final draft was finished on 28 February 1869, after which he spent nine weeks writing the fair copy.
The League of Youth was published on 30 September 1869 in Copenhagen by Gyldendalske Boghandel (Frederik Hegel), in a first edition of 2 000 copies. A re-print of 1 500 copies was already in the bookshops in November the same year.
The first performance of The League of Youth was on 18 October 1869 at Christiania Theater. The production caused an unprecedented uproar. It was taken to be strongly slanted against the liberal side in Norwegian politics. The supporters of the latter, led by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Ole Richter and Johan Sverdrup, were outraged. Hissing and other demonstrations were organized. On the second night things became so bad, with half the audience booing and hissing and the other half applauding loudly, that the director had to go on stage and appeal for silence so that the performance might continue; and in the press there were violent differences of opinion.
Ibsen was in Egypt at this point and did not hear of the tumults until about a month later, when on the quay at Port Said he received a letter from Suzannah. The poem «At Port Said» describes the feelings her description aroused in him:
Orient the day,
and the harbour glittered;
the whole world on display,
the ensigns flittered.
Music abounded,
borne to those listening;
massed cannon sounded
the canal's christening.
Steam-ships on cruise
passed the obelisked region.
They brought me news
from back home, in Norwegian.
The play I had polished
to mirror male misses,
back home was demolished
by stinking claque-hisses.
Gadfly had struck;
a reminder, a cold one. –
Stars, you've brought luck, –
my home is the old one!
Our river-boat hooted
the frigate a greeting;
hat raised I saluted
the ensign, competing.
Relax, that's best,
despite the snake-sting!
An honoured guest
on a Bitter Lakes fling!
When day's unwound
I`ll dream here in clover
of Pharoah drowned
while Moses passed over.
(Translation: John Northam)
(From ibsen.net)
Plot summary
Stensgård, a solicitor, is an ambitious young man hoping for a political career in a small Norwegian town. On 17 May, Constitution Day, he makes a flaming political speech attacking the owner of the local iron-works, Chamberlain Bratsberg. Stensgård announces that he intends to start a new, radical party, the League of Youth. Bratsberg believes that the attacks in the speech are directed against his rival and opponent, Monsen, a landowner. So to begin with, Stensgård is a welcome guest in Bratsberg's home.
Stensgård has been courting Monsen's daughter Ragna, but now decides he would like to marry Bratsberg's daughter Thora instead. He offers Bratsberg a handsome public apology, but the latter is outraged and shows him the door.
When Stensgård finds out that Bratsberg's son Erik has forged a paper with his father's signature in order to obtain money for some risky business enterprises with Monsen, he pays renewed attention to Ragna, planning to propose to her. But as Monsen also risks being involved in the scandal surrounding these enterprises, Stensgård proposes to a rich widow, Madame Rundholmen, to be on the safe side.
It turns out, however, that only Monsen, and not Bratsberg, has been involved in the forgery, so Stensgård again turns his attention to Thora and plans to propose to her. But she has lost interest in him, and Madame Rundholmen, on account of a mislaid loveletter, has chosen to become engaged to Monsen's son, Bastian. The result is that Stensgård is left without any prospective partner in marriage, and he leaves the town. Everything is now back where it was, except that the town is now blessed with several newly-engaged, happy couples.
(Source: Merete Morken Andersen, Ibsenhåndboken, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.)
Read The League of Youth (in Norwegian)
In the online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe), you can read The League of Youth in various formats. This content is currently only available in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read the play:
Introduction to the work (in Norwegian)
The online version of the official Ibsen edition (HISe) offers extensive information about The League of Youth in Norwegian. Follow the links below to read about various aspects connected to the play.
Reviews
Here you can find reviews in full text and an overview of registered reviews in various languages.
- Reviews from Ibsen's life time in full text
- Reviews registered in the Ibsen bibliography (nb.no)
- Reviews registered in "Norsk litteraturkritikk" (UiO)
Translations
- The Multilingual Ibsen
- Translations in various languages
- Overview of translations from Ibsen's lifetime (HISe)