Ibsen Plays: Six [Paperback]

Henrik Ibsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000 | Series: Methuen World Classics

"Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field" (George Steiner)

This volume contains Ibsen's famous early epic, Peer Gynt, and the historical tragedy The Pretenders, which together with Brand and Emperor and Galilean form a magisterial quartet at the fulcrum of Ibsen's career. George Bernard Shaw praised Peer Gynt (1867) for the power of Ibsen's 'grip on humanity …The universality of Ibsen makes his plays come home to all nations'. The Pretenders (1863), described by Kenneth Tynan as Ibsen's 'first great play', was also his first real success in the theatre.

Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and poet whose realistic, symbolic and often controversial plays revolutionised European theatre. He is widely regarded as the father of modern drama. His acclaimed plays include A Doll's House, Ghosts, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Methuen Drama; 1 edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0413153002
• ISBN-13: 978-0413153005
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,938,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works of visionary greatness, August 13, 1999

By 

The Baker Street Irregular (Staines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ibsen Plays: Six (Paperback)

Ibsen is often regarded as a "social writer", who, in his works, highlighted contemporary social issues. This is a great misunderstanding: Ibsen was a writer of visionary greatness, to be ranked with the likes of Tolstoy or Henry James. These six volumes of plays translated by Michael Meyer (also a distinguished biographer of the great man) are mandatory reading for anyone remotely interested in great literature. The very late plays, especially - "The Master Builder", "Little Eyolf", "John Gabriel Borkman" and "When We Dead Awaken" - take us to the rarefied heights of greatness.