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the most loathsome of Ibsen's plays If you have seen one play by Ibsen you have seen them all. A disagreeable and nasty woman; an egotistical and preachy man; a philosophical sensualist; dull and undramatic dialogue. The few independent people who have sat out a play by Ibsen have said to themselves, Put this stuff before the play-going public, risk it at the evening theatre, remove your claque, exhaust your attendance of the Socialistic and the sexless, and then see where your Ibsen will be. I have never known an audience yet that cared to pay to be bored.

London Daily Telegraph, reviewing the first performance of "Ghosts":

Ibsen's positively abominable play This disgusting representation Reprobation due to such as aim at infecting the modern theatre with poison after desperately inoculating themselves and others An open drain; a loathsome sore unbandaged; a dirty act done publicly; a lazar-house with all its doors and windows open Candid foulness Kotzebue turned bestial and cynical Offensive cynicism Ibsen's melancholy and malodorous world Absolutely loathsome and fetid Gross, almost putrid indecorum Literary carrion Crapulous stuff Novel and perilous nuisance.

Other London reviews of "Ghosts":

Unutterably offensive Prosecution under Lord Campbell's Act Abominable piece Scandalous.—Standard.