When Nora Helmer closed the door on her doll's house, the modern drama came into being. It was not so much that she asserted her emancipation from a stifling marriage, but that Henrik Ibsen himself proclaimed the playwright's emancipation from the spiritless drama of his time. A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, and Rosmersholm advanced the liberation in terms of social drama which revealed human beings confronted with present-day problems and willing to face their consequences.  These completely new translations--specially prepared for this edition by Eva La Gallienne and benefiting from her experience as one of the most thoughtful actresses and directors of the American stage--combine the accuracy, the literary taste and the dramatic naturalness that characterize all distinguished and enduring translations.