On this date in 1828, Henrik Ibsen was born in Norway. The playwright, a social critic who in his later years pioneered realist drama, produced a roster of literary classics. His plays include "Brand" (1866), "Peer Gynt" (1867), "A Doll's House" (1879), "Enemy of the People" (1882), and "Hedda Gabler" (1890). Reportedly becoming freethinker as a teenager, Ibsen was later influenced by Georg Brandes and became a more passionate unbeliever, penning "The Emperor and the Galilaean" (1873). Its disillusioned protagonist sets out to overthrow Christianity. Ibsen once wrote: "With pleasure I will torpedo the ark." D. 1906.
Henrik Ibsen
“Bigger things than the State will fall, all religion will fall.”
—Henrik Ibsen, letter to Georg Brandes, quoted in Ibsen by biographer Aall, 1906
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