Ibsen: A Biography by Michael Meyer
Published 1971 · 185,000 words · about 15 hours at an average pace · Biography, Essays & Criticism
How hard is Ibsen: A Biography to read?
Ibsen: A Biography scores 53 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
- Accessible literary-biographical prose; Ibsen's dramatic terminology explained in plain language.
- Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
- Abstraction: 62 out of 100
- Sustained engagement with dramatic form and symbolism in the late plays requires interpretive effort.
- Information density: 75 out of 100
- Dense with archival detail, biographical fact, and play-by-play critical analysis across a fifty-year career.
- Narrative indirection: 18 out of 100
- Chronological biography with embedded critical chapters; direct and well-signposted.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Analytical throughout; symbolic readings of Ibsen's imagery are explained rather than enacted.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Meyer's dry British wit appears occasionally when Ibsen's vanity or pettiness is on display.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Biographical narrative resolves chronologically; critical arguments are stated clearly.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Long chronological biography interspersed with detailed play analyses; well-organized but dense.
How Ibsen: A Biography is regarded
Ibsen: A Biography holds a literary regard score of 83 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.