Hedda gabler is a tale of a woman in the victorian ages. She was recently married to a man who considered writing a book "The Brabant in the middle ages" an exiting topic. She is torn between the role she must portray and the role she wants. The play shows the fall from grace and the decline of Hedda Gablers power. It is a powerful play and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone who read the play and wants to help me with a staging essay. amieDicaprio@yahoo.com

Ibsen is one of the most important playwrights to ever grace this earth, and it is not difficult to see why after reading this collection of plays. "The Doll House" is immediately fascinating, perhaps the easiest to understand out of this group of plays. It teaches the lesson that one must learn to stand on one's own, to carry out the cliché -- "to find oneself" -- but the lesson is not learned by the main character until the stage has been skillfully set in order to make the ending all the more compelling. The strongest play is perhaps "Hedda Gabler," whose upper class heroine, Hedda, is one of the most abstract and intriguing female characters ever written for a play. Devious and suffocating in her new middle class surroundings after marrying a rather dull man, her frustrations play out and alienate the other characters. The other characters are not merely accessories; they ARE the play when one juxtaposes them with Hedda. "The Wild Duck" is not as strong a play, and the dullest of the group, but is also worth a read. Overall, the collection is a quick and engrossing read.

This is a good book to have if you are an opamp designer.
But, I expect the author can do a lot better job than this with this high price.
It skips lots of discussions, I feel like that he just wanted to finish write a book without too much attention.
I hope he can prepare a second edition with more detailed stuff.
For example, I wanted a details of nested miller compensation, but I could not understand it yet from this book.

Dr. Johan H. Huijsing is the most famous expert on operational amplifiers. I had been waiting for quite long time since I knew he was going to publish this great book on OPAM last year.

I believe I am one of first several lucky guys who could read this masterpiece first. When I went to IEEE ISSCC 2001 conference at San Francisco in February 2001, I found Kluwer had .... I grabbed a book without any hesitation, and after I gave my credit card information to a Kluwer representative, all books were gone. It's so hot!

Dr. Huijsing has written several books on OPAM, and I think this book is the most comprehensive one. It addresses definitions of OPAMs, macromodels, applications, input and output stages, fully differential OPAMs and operational floating amplifiers, and shows some design examples. It presents nine design topologies to readers so you can pick up OPAM design very quickly and efficiently through different configurations. Dr. Huijsing also spends lots of efforts addressing low-power lower-voltage design techniques. Though CMOS technology is mainstream today, biploar and BiCMOS technologies are well elaborated in the book, and Dr. Huijsing makes very good comparisons among them, which could be particularly helpful to RF engineers.

Of course, one book cannot cover everything. I suggest you read some other good books from Dr. Huijsing, Dr. Razavi and Dr. David Johns etc. as well while you enjoying this wonderful book. ....

It is a good and comprehensive guide, it has a lot of animal tracks, I found it a good and complete guide, but honestly sometimes I had a lot of difficult tryng to find some kind of tracks that I found.

In my personal opinion I think that this is a very good book for experts on the field but not so good for beginners in animal tracks. And by the way it doesnt have any color illustration, and altough they are not needed I was very familiar with peterson guides and this one is a little different.

My wife and I have found this guide to be very useful in interpreting the sign left behind by the creatures resident in our northeastern woods, not only tracks but scat as well (with hundreds of detailed drawings of scat it is as much a guide to those leavings as tracks). The extensive behavioral descriptions are equally useful. I am not clear on the basis for the criticisms contained in the other review concerning animal harassment. Dr. Murie was a dedicated conservationist and President of The Wilderness Society after his retirement from the Fish and Wildlife Service and his respect for the creatures he is describing is evident on every page. While he acknowledges that some tracks were obtained from live-trapped animals, it is clear from the book that the overwhelming mass of the data is from direct field observation from a life spent in the outdoors.

very down to earth. dos'nt go into detail

While presenting an interesting thesis, the book missed many opportunities at greatness. Why? The genome analogy was almost completely squandered, probably because genes represent traits and not capabilities, as the authors suggest. (Perhaps the authors could compare 'centers of excellence' to organs, with genes being the traits those organs exhibit which separate world class organizations from also-rans.) But I didn't write the book, so, ok, the authors get the benefit of the doubt.

However, the notion that a company that exhibits a world-class capability should soul-search to figure out "what business they're really in" is overly simplistic. The business world is littered with companies that forgot what business they were in, and have since succumbed to their more focused competitors. It is the alignment of culture, strategy and workflow that characterizes great companies, not fitting square pegs into round holes by making wholesale strategic shifts because "we happen to be great at shipping or inventory management or product design." It is these areas of excellence that make otherwise mediocre companies stand out against their competition; packaging and selling such dominating capabilities could prove lethal. How? The notion of packaging a core capability misses an important counterpoint to the enthusiastic promise of the subtitle: Unlocking the value of your business, to be sure, might allow unwanted trespassers.

This book provides much in the way of theory and the ideas presented are valid absent any specific market context. Applying these ideas in the real world, however, is risky, expensive and challenges the notion of cyclicality - that a business varies between reliance on partners (outsourcing) and doing it all in-house because markets demand it or competitive threats command it. Once that dominiating capability that you have so carefully packaged and marketed is matched by a competitor, you're back to square one, having forgotten your original business base and left to rethink exactly what business you're in. Again. Sticking to what you're good at is no doubt good advice; sticking to what you're passionate about is better advice.

It would have rated '5' had the authors:
1. Continued to explore how some of the transaction cost issues associated with the market vs. hierarchies raised by Coase e.g. counterparty trust, act as a barrier to excessive disaggregation.
2. Discussed the question of how different network governance' models might be used with different combination of capabilities.
3. Talked about how contracting for services is different than direct material and how that difference impacts governance structures and contractual relationships.

I first heard about this book from an article in Fortune magazine about a year ago and since then it seems to be popping up everywhere. The authors present a completely original and compelling perspective on how companies can exploit the potential of their various business capabilities. Although the topic may appear to touch on old ground, it really doesn't. The authors look at businesses and their boundaries in a new, perhaps revolutionary, way. The text is full of cases and examples so the reading is pretty easy. They also provide solid frameworks and guidelines for executives. I think the ideas here could be as important as Hamper and Champy's "Reengineering the Corporation" was in the 1990's. I highly recommend it.

Hedda Gabler lives in an absolute prison. Her idylic residence is a prison, her marriage to a hopeful "ilustrious intellectual" is a prison, but above all, she lives imprisoned by herself, trapped by the social parameters that demand her to live the way she does. Hedda just can't figure out how to get out of that tedious state. She's intelligent, cold, severe; Gabler has an almost prodigious capacity to obtain all the information she inquires about the people around her; she manipulates them, she seems to get involved, but she simply tries to take advantage of the situation. Apparently, she doesn't feel much, but in reality, Hedda is in constant turmoil - her involvement has to do, almost exclusively, with what she just cannot allow herself to do.

For this woman, being able to have some sort of "power" over someone becomes the most exciting of all experiences, however - there's a point when she no longer will be able to manipulate the situation on her favor, she will realize how many forces have power over her; therefore, she will simply do the most congruent and coherent of things, as unexpected and shocking as the outcome of this play could possibly be.

Hedda Gabler is a wonderful story of a woman desperately trying to have control over her life. Married to a husband she doesn't love and pregnant with a child she doesn't want, Hedda seeks comfort in an old friend. There are enough surprizes in this play to keep it interesting throughout. Ibsen uses his brilliant writing style to capture the very essence of Hedda. I highly recommend Hedda Gabler as well as other works by Henrik Ibsen.

Hedda Gabler is a play filled with tensions and the theme of power play. Personally, I feel that Hedda Gabler is a reflection of a woman trapped in the wrong time. She is one who wants power but is denied of it due to her gender and also her status in the society and all that she needs is to just sit at home and recieve visitors. She has no aims to look forward to and I believe that it is suffocating for this woman. If she had been born in this time of the century, I believe that she would not land up in that patathic end.

I couldn't wait to get this book in the mail. After reading it I could have waited. I was really disappointed in the material. I found it to be about 5% information and 95% interpretation. This book was written by a Swedish Christian. That means that both Sweden and Christianity were largely the basis for that 95% interpretation. This book, despite the 'official' review, is nothing more than 'the end of the world is coming and so is the second coming of Christ' book. More specifically, 10/28/2011 is the end of everything we know today.
I have one good thing to say about the book. The actual calendar information is really interesting. It's probably not worth your time to read through 200+ pages for though.

In this scholarly work Carl Calleman examines the Mayan calendar in detail and explains how the Mayans combined their knowledge and understanding of not only time, but spirituality, evolutionary cycles, historical cycles and the very fabric of the universe into their system. Calleman weaves historical information with science, religious philosophy of various types, the pyramids, evolution and various other items to show how they are all related to the pattern of the Mayan calendar. Since the Mayan calendar continues through the year 2011 it predicts the pattern of things to come.

Interesting reading, it is filled with very scholarly research but at times it seems quite a stretch to make some of the items match up. Still it provides a thorough and rich understanding of the Mayan philosophy and how the calendar system contained their complete understanding of life, the cosmos, time, nature and God. A recommended read.

What has completely entranced me about Carl Johan Calleman's book is that he shows how consciousness is not only primary to matter, but also time itself. I'm sure you've come across the endtime date of December 2012 before, but he's got all the details in-between now and then nailed down and wow what an incredible ride we're in for. The last increase in the vibration of time occurred on January 4, 1999, so that every 360 days we on earth will experience major changes, whereas it had been every 19.7 years approx. Then during the last 260 days (before the closing of the cycles) the changes happen every 20 days!
Creation is accelerating and we are the Creators.

First, I must admit that I am not a Middle Ages scholar, and this book is the first one I have read about Middle Ages culture. Having said that, I thouroughly enjoyed Huizinga's book about life in France and Holland during the 15th Century. I am glad that I put the effort into reading this book. I say effort, because Huizinga's analysis is not light reading. No, it is a detailed analysis of Late Middle Ages culture - art, literature, religion, and lifestyles are all covered at great length. Much of it is fascinating when viewed in contrast with the way we live today.

This translation of the book seems solid. It includes a lot of text from original documents, many in French, or Latin, but includes English translations in the footnotes section. A few parts of the book were more difficult to work through than others, but in the end I felt like I had gained a new insight into European history. I particularly think that Huizinga's thoughts about the Christian church in this era leading to the reformation make for fascinating reading.

If you are interested in what life in the late middle ages may have been like then I highly recommend this book. Keep in mind that it is a historical exposition about this era, not a textbook treatment full of facts. Personally, it has kindled enough interest in this subject for me to warrant further study- hopefully it will do the same for you.

This book is written in a grotesque and literary manner. Johan Huizinga, the Great Dutch pre-War historian, possesses large cultural acknowledge and a huge historical skill. Comparisons can be made with Burckhardt's book about the Renaissance. If you want to know something about the later Middle Ages, especially in France and the Burgundian Countries (Low Countries), you must read this book for fully understanding the cultural-historical aspects of human medieval life and thought.

My problem with this book is the same that has been expressed by a couple other reviewers: to wit, does Huizinga really know what was going through the hearts and minds of the people in the particular era and region with which the book deals, as the author and his proselytes claim? My answer is, in a word,-No. No book can. History is an elusive subject under the best of circumstances.

Let me cut to the chase. Huizinga is really not so much interested in demarking the Middle Ages from the Renaissance. After one gets into the thick of things, it becomes quite obvious that what he's actually about is contrasting the Middle Ages (as he understands or imagines them) from his own historical milieu. I won't belabor the point: one citation will suffice. On page 235, Huizinga asseverates that, "There was no great truth of which the medieval mind was more certain than those words from the Corinthians, 'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.' They never forgot that everything would be absurd if it exhausted its meaning in its immediate function and form of manifestation, and that all things extend in an mportant way to the world beyond." How does he know? Did he conduct extensive interviews with illiterate serfs whose life expectancy was a fraction of ours and spent almost all their waking hours trying to put food in their bellies? - No, the worldview Huizinga describes above is one common to mystics and poets of all eras and climes. His very citation of the Corinthians subverts any notion that it was exclusive to the Netherlands in the Middle Ages.

Huizinga was essentially an artistic and poetic writer, and the insights one comes away with from his book are such as one might expect from one so gifted: textured and fascinating portraits of a time now lost. But they are just that, verbal pictures, calling to mind not so much Breughel or any of the other artists whose works are Plated in the middle of the book, but that of the Pre-Raphaelites.

This is an enchanting book and well worth the read. It's just that you may have to hang your critic's hat upon a medieval peg before sitting down to enjoy it. I trust you have one...a medieval peg that is.

I chose this book to read and analyse a couple of years ago. It seemed to have simple meaning, but the more I tried to analyse, the more outstanding I found the book, and far from simple.
Helen Alving is a widow and is keeping a secret. One day she tells her friend Manders and he's quite shocked. It all has to do with some money from her dead husband that she doesn't want her son to have. Oswald, her son, comes home from abroad with very sad news. He is ill, and there isn't a cure for him. When Mrs. Alving is told that it was most likely inherited, she tells her son the secret too, and that changes his view on his father. As the book goes on, the intriques grow bigger...
Ibsen is probably more known for his play "A Doll House", but this one is just as great. He was very critical of the society and most, if not all, of his books often has a somewhat hidden story where he debates social matters and also morals. He use symbols and mostly contrasts to give the play a certain atmosphare and meaning. I believe this is one of Ibsen's greatest plays and strongly recommend it to anyone.

Although Henrik Ibsen is the first great modern dramatist, his play "Ghosts" ("Gengangere") bears a strong similarity to ancient Greek drama, where the "tragic flaw" of the protagonist lives on in his children. However, in this story the curse on the Alving family has a medical basis. Published in 1881 but not performed until the next year because of its controversial subject matter, "Ghosts" deals with the impact of congenital venereal disease on a family. "Ghosts" strongly reflects Ibsen's desire to attack hypocrisy and conventional morality and caused even more of a furor that his previous drama, "A Doll's House."

Helen Alving is building an orphanage as a memorial to her late husband and the night before the dedication she confesses to her old friend Parson Manders that her husband had been a "degenerate," and she is building the orphanage using her husband's "dirty" money so only her own money will pass on to her son, Oswald, who has just returned from living abroad. But then Oswald confesses he has a debilitating, incurable disease that the doctors believe was inherited. Even from beyond the grave, the "ghost" of Captain Alving ruins the life of his family. Mrs. Alving has to confess her husband's past to their son, destroying the young man's idealized view of his father. Knowing he is dying, Oswald wants to seduce the maid, Regina, so that when he enters the next stage of the disease she will give him poison. Oswald does not care that Regina is really his half-sister, and in the end it will be his mother's decision whether or not to give her son the poison when Oswald begins to have his attack.

The ending of the play constitutes a Rorschach test for the audience, with Ibsen refusing to let them off the hook. "Ghosts" is probably the Ibsen drama that relies most on symbolism, from the heavy use of light/dark imagery to the purifying aspects of fire, to the obvious symbolism of ghosts. Consequently, I think this makes "Ghosts" one of the easier plays by Ibsen for students to analyze. Final Argument: Reading Ibsen's plays in order has greater benefit than usual. If you read "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "The Wild Duck," then you will see the playwright struggling to find a play that will reflect his deeply held beliefs and also find widespread critical and public acceptance. The relationship between each set of plays in the progression becomes insightful, as Ibsen either extends or reverses elements of the previous drama. For teachers of drama there might not be a better quartet of plays to study to show the growth of a major dramatist.

If a great dramatist did not challenge the binding social restrictions back in late 19th century, it would probably have taken longer for us to break the chains of convention. Ibsen contributed to the liberation of society and its rules using dramatic pieces like Ghosts. I don't want to give out the plot, but basically it's about a catastrophe created when the characters adhered to outdated social norms instead of following their hearts. The play is written after the classical Greek style of tragedy, so there's a strong taste of Sophecles in Ghosts. The play begins less than 24 hours before its end, and Ibsen's greatness is clearly shown by his ability to pack so much plot and message in so few words. When read today, the figures in Ghosts may seem ridiculous, for they strictly follow outdated rules that we all belittle today. But had not Ibsen had the courage to attack them, we might still be living under those rules now. Definitely a great piece.

I was forced to read all of Ibsen's work as part of an english degree but, unlike the wordy and old-fashioned prose of books like "Anna Karenina" or "Middlemarch", Ibsen was a refreshing break - with his down-to-earth, probable, moving and tragically realistic plays that are relevent even in modern society. I especially recommend "Ghosts" - although if you like the corny "resolve everything" endings of Hollywood, this tragic and open-ended play is not for you! For readers who like to guess their own ending, get "Ghosts" right now!!

I first picked up a copy of Ibsen while searching through my parents' bookshelf for something to read; after zipping through 'A Doll House' I knew I was hooked. All of Ibsen's (late) plays are amazing in that they adhere to a strict structure - always set in Norway (even though Ibsen lived all around Europe) in a small town and, with the exception of 'The Wild Duck,' have a similarly bittersweet ending - but are nevertheless full of brute and honest emotions and characters who are incredibly multi-dimensional, all within about 100 pages per play.

These four plays are no doubt among Ibsen's best. 'Ghosts' deals with disease of the body and the spirit in the Alving family, while 'The Lady from the Sea' is comparable to 'Hedda Gabler' in its strong feminism: the main character Ellida demands the right to choose her own future. In 'John Gabriel Borkman' the title character comes down from self-imposed confinment in the attic of his house to begin his life again.

However, my favorite has to be 'An Enemy of the People', which is one of the most powerful indictments of bourgeois democratic politics I've ever read. Those interested in such nineteenth-century philosophers as Kierkegaard or Nietzsche would particularly enjoy this play, since Ibsen strongly denounces the idea that the will of the majority is always right. While the American film of the play was not that good, there's a reason it was made in the first place: 'Enemy' might be the most relevant of all of Ibsen's plays to contemporary society (and I thought that even before the 2000 election!). While you might not agree with the sentiments of the main character, Dr. Stockmann, his ideas will provoke a reaction one way or the other, I promise you.

Finally, the book also contains a lengthy and informative foreword by the translator Rolf Fjelde.

Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" is not dull and unmoving; it characterizes the machinations of small-town politicos in a way that parallels many "democratic" examples we have around us today (in 1998 America, that is). Predictable at times, Ibsen's Dr. Stockmann provides the reader with a perfect candidate for this tragic affair: he is an idealist through and through, and readers know Ibsen is speaking from actual life experience. "An Enemy of the People" is therapeutic for anyone who has been stung by things political, and enlightening for those lucky enough to have avoided that sting.

I read this play first for pleasure and years later for a English composition II class several years ago and as I read some of the reviews before writing and posting this one I can see that a lot of reviewers that came before me didnt understand the play at all. This play took place over a hundred years ago. The choices for women then were limited plus Nora and Tovald lived In Norway whose laws are sgnificantly different from ours due to time and culture. Nora certainly had her faults but sometimes we are just found stuck in roles society gives us. And what would take more courage to remain in a bad role after a moment of self discovery is made or to walk out of that role and try to grow as a person and discover things about yourself on your own? Nora's choices were very limited. It was stated in the play that by walking away from the marriage she would also have to disclaim any rights to her children in Norway. She had no choice but to give up the rights to her children. Neither Nora nor Tovald knew who she was very well. Sometimes it is much better for the children if a marriage ends because it is bad and has no foundation. But Nora is a very strong and determined character. She forged a bank note to save her husbands life when no one else could. She saves and earns money to pay back the loan. But also she is trapped in the facade of her marriage with Tovald who neither respects her or knows who she really is. Lies beget lies and it is out of the lie of the marriage she is in that she is made to conceal what she did to save her husbands life and tell lies herself. Finally after her husband finds out and is so consumed with how it will look to others that he tells her that the marriage for now on will just be a cover for the benefit of the outside world but he can no longer trust her nor shall she be trusted with her children etc a self discovery moment occurs. Nora and Tovald didnt really know each other nor was the marriage real in any meaning of the word. But when something happens and he has a change of heart about Nora in the blink of an eye Nora realizes that the whole marriage was a lie and in a moment of strength and determination she decides to leave the situation to find something better and grow as a person. But here is the rub Tovald said that she can not be trusted after what she did was revealed to him and that she has lost his respect but this is just a circumstance we are made well aware of in the play . Tovald shows us that he never did trust or respect Nora in the first place so what she is rejecting is a fruadulent marriage. She refused to go on living in that lie any longer. And that decision takes more courage , strength and determination than anyone who has never been in that place will know. I say three cheers for Nora for finally waking up and doing what she had to do!

The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen subjects his writing to the intricacies of marriage time and time again. He seems to have an omniscient power and ability to observe the sacrament itself, along with the fictional characters whom he creates to engage in these marital affairs. Such is the case with his classic drama, A Doll's House.

The play raises questions about female self-sacrifice in a male-dominated world. Nora is a "wife and child" to Torvald Helmer, and nothing more. She is his doll, a plaything on display to the world, of little intellectual value and even less utility in his life. Thus it is logical for Helmer to act so shockingly upon his discovery that Nora has managed financial affairs (typically a family responsibility reserved for the patriarch) without so much as his consent or knowledge. What, then, is the play saying about women by allowing Nora to act alone and independently, all the while allowing her to achieve little success in doing so?

Such an apparent doubt by the playwright of the abilities of women is quickly redeemed by Nora's sudden mental fruition, as though she, in the course of a day or so, accomplishes the amount of growing up to which most persons devote years and years. She has developed the intuition and motivation to leave behind everything she has lived for during she and Helmer's eight years of marriage in exchange for an independent life and the much-sought virtue of independent thought. Nora suddenly wishes to be alone in the world, responsible for only her own well-being and success or failure. She is breaking free of her crutches (Helmer, her deceased father, the ill-obtained finances from Krogstad) and is now appetent to walk tall and proud.

Through the marital madness of Helmer and Nora, Ibsen is questioning the roles of both husband and wife, and what happens when one person dominates such a relationship in a manner that is demeaning to the other, regardless of whether such degradation is carried out in a conscious, intended frame of mind. Ibsen is truly a master playwright, and his play A Doll's House is truly a masterpiece.

Henrik Ibsen in one of the most famous Norwegian writers thoughout the world. And he is known for his plays where he gives a critical view upon the society.
In this play, everything happens around the main character Nora. She is innocent, naiv and has no education at all, just like most women of her social rank had at that time. Her husband, Torvald, is well known in the city, and his wife is just a "doll". She isn't supposed to have opinions on anything, just smile and look pretty in this male dominated world.
When Torvald Helmer finds out that his wife has "stole" money from her father to be able to pay for a health insitution for him, he's shocked. Nora, not understand what she might have done wrong, was only trying to help her husband, and yet protect her dying father. She wakes up, starting feel independant, wanting to discover herself...
Ibsen was a master of showing different sides of the social levels, and giving a critic view on what he didn't like. He has done it yet again, focusing on the marriage of these two people. Supression and a male dominated world is central aspects, and also the growing feminisme.
The book is worth reading for anyone how loves to read. It is truly one of Ibsen's best plays!