Common Sparrow<p>Today's book recommendation for Women's History Month is "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen.</p><p>This 3-act play was so controversial when it was first written in 1879 that Ibsen had to write an alternate ending before it was accepted for performance. But that door-slamming conclusion became widely known, and almost all productions since have preserved Ibsen's original ending.</p><p>The play centers around Nora, and her marriage to Torvald, a bank manager. Her husband sees her as a pretty doll, to be cherished but not taken seriously, to be humored, patronized, and kept in her place as a woman. </p><p>Unknown to him, Nora took out an illegal loan, to finance a trip to Italy for Torvald to recover from an illness. She forged a male signature on the loan paperwork, because women were not allowed to take out loans for themselves. She told Torvald that the money had been a bequest, to conceal the loan while she struggled secretly to repay it.</p><p>Torvald's reaction when the truth is known leads to a memorable confrontation in which Nora realizes how restrictive her life has been. Her decision to walk out and leave him shocked audiences. But the play's conclusion made Nora the center of feminist arguments around the world, as the play was translated over and over. That slammed door has reverberated through the century and a half since.</p><p>Link to the play at Project Gutenberg:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2542" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="">gutenberg.org/ebooks/2542</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p>Link to audiobook at LibriVox:<br><a href="https://librivox.org/a-dolls-house-by-henrik-ibsen/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">librivox.org/a-dolls-house-by-</span><span class="invisible">henrik-ibsen/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mindly.social/tags/WomensHistoryMonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WomensHistoryMonth</span></a> <a href="https://mindly.social/tags/BookRecommendations" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BookRecommendations</span></a></p>