3 h 18 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the promise you barely dare remember walks through your door and asks you to be brave again?
Halvard Solness stands at the top of his trade, but success brings no peace. In his drafting office, the master builder fears the young people who might replace him. Then Hilde Wangel arrives with a rucksack, a walking stick, and a claim: he made her a promise ten years ago.
In Henrik Ibsen’s three-act play, Hilde urges Solness to recover the daring she remembers. Around them, other lives bear the weight of his ambition. His wife, Aline, holds to duty through grief, while young draftsman Ragnar Brovik waits for a chance his employer refuses to give him. Quiet conversations expose guilt beneath Solness’s pride.
What you’ll discover
- Success shadowed by fear Meet a builder whose place at the top leaves him dreading those who follow.
- A visitor who demands courage Follow Hilde as she presses Solness to become the daring man she remembers.
- The lives ambition touches See how Solness’s choices weigh on his grieving wife and the young draftsman he holds back.
- Houses, towers, and hidden meanings Enter ordinary rooms where familiar objects carry the pressure of desire, fear, and illusion.
- Questions without easy comfort Consider what ambition costs, what success conceals, and what one person owes another.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, tense dramas about ambition, guilt and the fear of being replaced, and anyone drawn to symbols and the uncertain line between fact and imagination.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A successful builder fears the young
- A girl from the past knocks
- The fire that built his fortune
- Hilde pushes him to dare again
- Ambition, guilt and what we owe
- A realist play that turns symbolic
Who’s who
- Halvard SolnessThe master builder, successful and fearful, who hides guilt over his past and dreads being replaced by the young.
- Hilde WangelA bold young woman who arrives to claim a promise from ten years before and wants Solness to be daring again.
- Aline SolnessSolness's wife, worn down by an old loss, who holds to duty and lives quietly in the shadow of grief.
- Ragnar BrovikA gifted young draftsman who wants one chance to design on his own and is held back by his employer.
- Knut BrovikAn aging architect, once Solness's employer, who is failing in health and hopes to see his son succeed.
- Kaja FosliThe bookkeeper, engaged to Ragnar, who admires Solness and is caught between her fiance and her employer.
- Dr. HerdalThe family doctor, a calm observer who listens to Solness's worries and doubts his stranger ideas.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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The Master Builder
by Henrik Ibsen · 1892
A young woman arrives to claim a promise, unsettling a successful builder haunted by guilt and fear of being replaced.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A successful builder fears the young
The play opens in the drafting office of Halvard Solness in a Norwegian town. Solness is the master builder of the title, and he has no formal training as an architect. He began with churches, then moved on to building homes for ordinary families, and the town now depends on his name. In the office work three people who each need something from him. Knut Brovik is an old architect who once employed Solness and now works under him, and he is dying to see his son succeed.
That son is Ragnar Brovik, a talented young draftsman who longs to be trusted with a commission of his own. His fiancee, Kaja Fosli, keeps the books and clearly admires Solness. Solness holds Ragnar back year after year, and he does it for a reason he hides from the old man. If Ragnar leaves, Kaja will leave with him, and Solness wants her close.
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What is The Master Builder about?
It is about Halvard Solness, a successful builder who fears being replaced by younger men. A young woman, Hilde Wangel, arrives and presses him to face his guilt, his past and the promise she says he made her.
Who is Hilde Wangel in The Master Builder?
Hilde is a young woman who first saw Solness ten years earlier at the opening of a church tower. She comes to him as an adult, claiming he promised her a kingdom, and she urges him to be bold.
What does the tower symbolize in The Master Builder?
The tower stands for ambition, pride and the wish to rise above others. It also stands for the danger of height, and for the fear and dizziness that Solness feels at the top of his career.
The author
Henrik Ibsen
1828–1906 · Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. He was born in Skien, Norway, and lived in Italy and Germany from 1864 to 1891 before returning to Norway. He wrote A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), and Hedda Gabler (1890). He died in Oslo.
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