Brandes has pointed to it, with equal justice, as marking Ibsen's final breach with his early--one might almost say his hereditary romanticism. He here becomes, at last, "the most modern of the moderns." "This, I am convinced," says the Danish critic, "is his imperishable glory, and will give lasting life to his works."GHOSTSA FAMILY-DRAMA IN THREE ACTS.(1881) CHARACTERS. MRS. HELEN ALVING, widow of Captain Alving, late Chamberlain to the King. OSWALD ALVING, her son, a painter. PASTOR MANDERS. JACOB ENGSTRAND, a carpenter. REGINA ENGSTRAND, Mrs. Alving's maid. The action takes place at Mrs. Alving's country house, beside one of the large fjords in Western Norway. ACT FIRST. [A spacious garden-room, with one door to the left, and two doors to the right. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs about it. On the table lie books, periodicals, and newspapers. In the foreground to the left a window, and by it a small sofa, with a worktable in front of it. In the background, the room is continued into a somewhat narrower conservatory, the walls of which are formed by large panes of glass. In the right-hand wall of the conservatory is a door leading down into the garden. Through the glass wall a gloomy fjord landscape is faintly visible, veiled by steady rain.] [ENGSTRAND, the carpenter, stands by the garden door. His left leg is somewhat bent; he has a clump of wood under the sole of his boot. REGINA, with an empty garden syringe in her hand, hinders him from advancing.] REGINA. [In a low voice.] What do you want? Stop where you are. You're positively dripping. ENGSTRAND. It's the Lord's own rain, my girl. REGINA. It's the devil's rain, _I_ say. ENGSTRAND. Lord, how you talk, Regina. [Limps a step or two forward into the room.] It's just this as I wanted to say-- REGINA. Don't clatter so with that foot of yours, I tell you! The young master's asleep upstairs. ENGSTRAND. Asleep? In the middle of the day? REGINA. It's no business of yours. ENGSTRAND. I was out on the loose last night--
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