IBSEN, Emperor and Galilean
by Brian Johnston, Henrik Ibsen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brian Johnston, Henrik IbsenTranslator: Brian Johnston
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-11
ISBN: 1575251949
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Smith & Kraus Pub Inc
Book Reviews of IBSEN, Emperor and Galilean
Book Review: "You have won, Galilean."
Summary: 5 Stars
Henrik Ibsen has gone down in history as one of the premiere dramatists of the 19th century (and of all-time), primarily on the strenght on a long run of plays written in the last decades of his career that helped to define the 'realist' school. Discussions of which was his best work most commonly bring up "Hedda Gabler", "A Doll's House", and "Ghosts", among others. However, in what for most people functions as a curious footnote in Ibsen's biography, he insisted to the end of his life that his magnum opus was "Emperor and Galilean", an 1873 historical drama written just before the beginning of his 'great' works, which is scarcely ever performed.
For his subject, Ibsen has chosen Flavius Claudius Julianus, Emperor of the Romans, known to history as Julian the Apostate, the last pagan to hold that position. Though he ruled for a span of less than two years from 361 to 363, he has been the inspiration for numerous artistic works in the 1800 years since his demise. The historian Lord Norwich commented that "of all the eighty-eight Emperors of Byzantium, it is Julian who, more than any other - not excepting the great Constantine himself - has caught the imagination of posterity[.]" Upon obtaining the throne, he made the main policy initiative of his regime the restoration of paganism at the expense of Christianity, something that has inspired numerous historical "what if?" scenarios, led to his demonization by subsequent Christian historians, and in the last while led to his appropriation by anti-Christian modernists as a doomed hero.
Ibsen's Julian is somewhere between the villain of Gregory of Nazianus and the heroic polemicist of Gore Vidal. The play, Ibsen's longest work, consists of two five-act parts: "Caesar's Apostasy", which, per the title, chronicles Julian's gradual loss of his Christian religion and his rise to the purple; and "The Emperor Julian", which follows his time in office and the gradual decline of his reasoning. He starts out with a number of cogent arguments, particularly against the hypocrisy of the supposedly Christian court that he grew up in, under Emperor Constantius, who ordered the execution of his parents. Of course (and this is something missed by both Julian and his most ardent literary and historical admirers) this hypocrisy is really far more a universal characteristic of courts than of Christianity. By "The Emperor Julian", however, he becomes increasingly divorced from reality: beholden to reading omens in whatever way suits him, baffled by the opposition his policies provoke in his Christian population, responding to every little thing by writing a pamphlet which he claims will prove his enemies wrong, and ultimately leading the imperial army to the brink of destruction.
In line with popular rumours (though not backed up by the accounts immediately after his death), Julian is depicted as being killed by one of his own (Galilean) men. With his passing goes any hope of his vague, personalized paganism returning to supremacy, as the Galilean General Jovian is acclaimed as his successor as emperor (Jovian, incidentally, would reign for only eight months, but that's not important). Whatever the value of Julian's goals, his life provides a dynamite subject for fiction: one man (a philosopher-king) out to reshape the world in his image, ultimately brought down with his ambitions unfulfilled.
Rarely performed because of its tremendous length (and the comparative critical unimportance it has traditionally been assigned), "Emperor and Galilean" is well worth the time of fans of historical fiction (particularly of this time period) and Ibsen.
Summary of IBSEN, Emperor and Galilean
Emperor and Galilean was published in 1873 when Ibsen was at the height of his creative powers. He saw it as the cornerstone of his entire dramatic output. He had completed the two great poetic dramas, Brand and Peer Gynt, and was about to embark on the cycle of twelve modern plays, beginning with Pillars of Society and concluding with When We Dead Awaken , which were to establish his unrivaled international fame. While the plays of the Realist Cycle are well-known, Emperor and Galilean still awaits discovery by modern readers, actors and directors.Theater Books
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