Nothing happens save in the souls of the characters; there is no
further invention, but rather what one may perhaps call
inquisition. This does not prevent the second act from being quite
the most poignant or the third act from being one of the most
moving that Ibsen ever wrote. Far from wishing to depreciate the
play, I rate it more highly, perhaps, than most critics--among the
very greatest of Ibsen's achievements. I merely note as a
characteristic of the poet's latest manner this disparity of scale
between the work foreshadowed, so to speak, and the work completed.
We shall find it still more evident in the case of _John Gabriel
Borkman_.



LITTLE EYOLF
(1894)

CHARACTERS

ALFRED ALLMERS, landed proprietor and man of letters
formerly a tutor.
MRS. RITA ALLMERS, his wife.
EYOLF, their child, nine years old.
MISS ASTA ALLMERS, Alfred's younger half-sister.
ENGINEER BORGHEIM.
THE RAT-WIFE.

The action takes place on ALLMERS'S property, bordering on the
fjord, twelve or fourteen miles from Christiania.