Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828 to a wealthy family in Skien, on the east coast of Norway. His father's ancestors had been seafarers; his mother came from a family of the most prominent merchants in the town. During the early years of his life, Ibsen grew up in luxury. His father owned one of the most prosperous stores in Skein, and the family had servants and a stable of horses and a house in the country. That changed early in the author's life, in 1835, when a drop in timber prices forced his father into bankruptcy. The store was lost, the house was sold at auction, and the family had to move to a rented house outside of town. Many critics point to the sudden reversal in his family's fortune as a key to Ibsen's later cynicism about the social order.

After the family's fall from social...