Henrik Ibsen's enduring drama about a Nordic femme fatale, a neurotic, controlling, strong-willed woman who is nonetheless alluring to the males in her town. She is a solitary woman in a society held together by kinship and class. If she had had more brains she would have thought her way out of it. If she had had more courage she would have bolted long ago with Løvborg, the only true creative force in the vicinity whose manuscript she burns in the stove as if she were aborting their unconceived child.—alfiehitchie