Mr. Punch's Pocket Ibsen: A Collection of Some of the Master's Best-Known Dramas Condensed, Revised, and Slightly, Re-Arranged for the Benefit of the Earnest Student (Classic Reprint)

Published in 1893, Mr. Punch's Pocket Ibsen was written by F. Anstey, the pseudonym for Thomas Anstey Guthrie, who was a prominent contributor to Punch magazine. The work emerged during the height of the Victorian cultural debate surrounding the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, whose realist dramas were then considered scandalous, gloomy, and overly avant-garde by many British theater critics and traditionalists.

The book serves as a satirical parody, compressing Ibsen's complex plays into brief, mock-serious summaries to poke fun at the intense earnestness of the Ibsenites. Illustrated by Bernard Partridge, the volume adopts the whimsical and biting tone of Punch to challenge the accessibility of modern drama. It remains a notable example of late-19th-century literary lampooning, reflecting the tensions between traditional Victorian sensibilities and the rising tide of European modernism.