Recommendations
Books Like The Master Builder
Best books to read after The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen
Readers who love The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen are drawn to its combination of psychological depth, symbolic richness, and the portrait of the great artist who has built his success on the suppression of others and must finally face the impossible demand to be as great as the woman who believes in him — they want plays and novels that deal with artistic ambition, its costs, and the late style of the great Ibsen plays.
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Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
The companion late Ibsen play — Hedda Tesman and the offstage shot. Companion late Ibsen plays organized around people destroyed by the gap between their aspirations and what their circumstances allow: Hedda by her society's refusal; Solness by his own terror of the height he has committed himself to reaching
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When We Dead Awaken
by Henrik Ibsen
The final Ibsen play and direct companion — the sculptor Rubek and Irene, the model he used and discarded. Companion late Ibsen plays about the guilt of the great artist: Solness's guilt about what his success cost those around him; Rubek's guilt about what his art cost Irene
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A Doll's House
by Henrik Ibsen
The earlier companion — Nora Helmer's departure. Shows the arc of Ibsen's development: from the play about a woman finding the courage to leave a constraining relationship, to the play about the man who built his success on constraining relationships and is finally destroyed by the demand to be as great as the woman who believes in him
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Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann
Mann's companion in the literary tradition of the great artist destroyed by the impossible demand of beauty — Gustav von Aschenbach and Tadzio in Venice. Companion investigations of the artist who has built his life on a principle of restraint and control and is destroyed when confronted with a desire (for beauty; for height) that the principle cannot contain
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Rosmersholm
by Henrik Ibsen
The companion Ibsen play — Rosmer and Rebecca West, the progressive project that destroys them both. Companion late Ibsen plays about the guilt of people who have used others to achieve their own ends, and the woman who arrives to demand that the man be equal to her belief in him
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Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
Joyce's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of the artist's ambition and its costs — Stephen Dedalus forging the uncreated conscience of his race. Both The Master Builder and Portrait of the Artist investigate the question of what art costs and who pays for it
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The Wild Duck
by Henrik Ibsen
The earlier companion late Ibsen play — the Ekdal family's attic, Gregers Werle's destructive idealism, and Hedvig's death. Both The Wild Duck and The Master Builder are plays about the consequences of the demand to be ideal: Gregers demands truth; Hilde demands the impossible climb
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The Magus
by John Fowles
Fowles's companion in the tradition of the man who meets the impossible demand of a woman who wants him to be greater than he is. Both The Magus and The Master Builder are companion investigations of the relationship between a man's ambition, his guilt, and the woman who demands that he live up to the self she has imagined for him
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