Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
A Doll House  By  cover art

A Doll House

By: Henrik Ibsen
Narrated by: Calista Flockhart,Tony Abatemarco,Tim Dekay,Jeannie Elias,Gregory Itzin,Jobeth Williams
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $5.42

Buy for $5.42

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Nora Helmer has everything a young housewife could want: Beautiful children, an adoring husband, and a bright future. But when a carelessly buried secret rises from the past, Nora’s well-calibrated domestic ideal starts to crumble. Ibsen’s play is as fresh today as it was when it first stormed the stages of 19th-century Europe.

Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at the James Bridges Theater, UCLA in September, 2011.

Director: Rosalind Ayres

Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

Calista Flockhart as Nora Helmer

Tony Abatemarco as Dr. Rank

Tim DeKay as Torvald Helmer

Jeannie Elias as Anne-Marie/Helene

Gregory Itzin as Nils Krogstad

JoBeth Williams as Mrs. Linde

Associate Producer: Christina Montaño. Recording Engineer/Sound Designer/Mixer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Sound Effects Artist: Tony Palermo. Editor: Wes Dewberry

©2011 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2011 L.A. Theatre Works

What listeners say about A Doll House

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    649
  • 4 Stars
    382
  • 3 Stars
    179
  • 2 Stars
    57
  • 1 Stars
    40
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    762
  • 4 Stars
    259
  • 3 Stars
    109
  • 2 Stars
    25
  • 1 Stars
    25
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    596
  • 4 Stars
    316
  • 3 Stars
    163
  • 2 Stars
    59
  • 1 Stars
    38

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A classic, but new to me

This was a new story to me - I had not seen nor read the play before. I was shocked by the resolution because it seemed so atypical for even the late 19th century -- in fact, I have read since that it was quite a controversial ending and Ibsen was forced to change it for performances in Germany.

In a nutshell, this is a story about a paternalistic and overbearing husband and his secretive and child-like wife; to him, he has a dollhouse of perfect little toys to play with, but to her, she has a gilded cage full of superficial pleasantries but no freedom. The resolution is unexpected for 1879, even though today's reader might think it appropriate.

The production was good, even though I'm not a Calista Flockhart fan, but the children sounded like Munchkins - which is odd, because this is a live production and I'm sure they were really children in the roles. Tim Dekay and Gregory Itzin were wonderful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

had to read this for school

but boy I am so glad I did because this is literally the best thing ever. their performance is seriously amazing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good performance, beware of text variations

This was an excellent performance, but the recording does not match the text of the play in my book. This is a problem because I'm a teacher and would have liked to use the recording to support instruction in class.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Independence

Awesome story, favorite part, Nora's self realization that she has never thought for herself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic!

What made the experience of listening to A Doll House (Dramatized) the most enjoyable?

Great performance of a classic. I've heard about it for years but never seen the play. Betty Friedan references it in The Feminine Mystique, so that reminded me to get A Doll House. I'm so glad I did. It's not just for feminists, so don't let that idea fool you. It's just good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Interesting!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I listened to this because it is one of my granddaughter's favorite. I can't say it is one of mine but my granddaughter thought it was thought provoking. She is 17 years of age.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The end brings it all together!

Any additional comments?

The morality of the characters was intriguing. The end of the book reveals the actual plot and is a complete surprise….I totally love that my granddaughter got it. She realized the deeper meaning of consequences for all behavior. The protagonist' character flaws are artfully presented through the writings in "A Doll House."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unwilling to be her father's or her husband's doll

Ibsen denied that he was entering the fight for equal rights for women when he wrote A Doll House, but whether or not intended that is exactly what his play does. And it does so with great force and effect.

I first saw the play in London approximately 25 years ago. I liked it then and I like it now. Nora had literally lived her life for her father and then for her husband with no thoughts of her own needs; she has been their doll. When she comes to that realization, the reality that she is a person in her own right, Torvald is too set in his own views of marriage that he fails to see that it should be a true partnership. So he forces Nora to leave so she can live her life rather than living exclusively to meet his needs. My wife and I celebrated the 47th anniversary of our marriage partnership yesterday. Ibsen's drama deserves some credit for making such marriages more common.

The performance is quite good, but Calista Flockhart's Nora character was much better performed than the other parts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

You go Woman!

If you could sum up A Doll's House in three words, what would they be?

I was surprised. Although the story is 'dated'....the subject matter in some ways still comes up even today.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I don't think I had a favorite character.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

All narrators did a great job.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A woman grows up!

Any additional comments?

Glad I purchased this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Ibsen's plays are always multidimensional with a strain of myth.

The code of courtly love was evidently still alive in 1879, but needed eradicated. Ibsen must silence all its proponents--for the good of society, both men and women.

The beautiful damsel--who would look good and graceful (even in cheap clothes), especially to her star-dazed lover--must dance and sing, preferably a lively folk dance (tarantella) and a pastoral ditty with a troubadour's instrument (tambourine). And, her lover (lovers, including the doctor) must be willing to foolishly sacrifice himself, either by languishing away for want of her love (the doctor) or otherwise obliterating himself so that his beloved might live. Both of our main characters demonstrate that the code of courtly love is well engrained in their minds.

What's next? Circumvent the law? No, not that law, but the laws of courtly love. How appropriate that the lawyer shows us the way to transition from an outmoded patriarchal, pastoral society to a modern world of The State, the new world view so analyzed by 19th Century intellectuals. Ibsen is never just about individual characters, but always deep in multiple layers, and anthropologists of his day were hot on the trail of the myths that pervade our lives. For all drama for many decades following Ibsen, I always look for this underlying strain of myth, more prominent in drama than perhaps any other literary genre.

Most prominent among these anthropologists was Sir James Frazer, whose first publication in 1890 of The Golden Bough rocked the literary world more than any other book of its time--and was quoted more in my professors' lectures on drama. Audible has a copy of the 1894 edition for $10.95. The sample narration sounds great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Magnificent

A Doll's House, Written by: Henrik Ibsen. The audible purchase is a taped performance.

Self-centered people. Materialistically bent. Desires for the esteem of others, willing to be hypocritical within, expecting no one else will ever see. Men treating women as if they were toys for playing with, women being play things but not one with their husbands, neither considering that is ownership not partnership. Then the tragedy of it all.

In a few simple scenes all this is developed through simply two hours of human interaction on a stage. Yet a plot that grows in complexity, is unexpected and thought provoking.

Is it entertaining; does it demonstrate the better way for love, marriage and friendship? All I can say is: magnificent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful