Description
By Henrik Ibsen. Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp and illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Color edition. Enter a remarkable world of Norwegian folklore, restless ambition, and imaginative adventure in one of Henrik Ibsen’s most celebrated works.
Drawing upon Norwegian folktales and legends, Peer Gynt follows the extraordinary wanderings of Peer, a boastful dreamer whose boundless imagination and refusal to face reality carry him far from his native village. His adventures lead him through mountain wildernesses and the kingdom of the trolls, across the sea, and into the deserts of North Africa as he pursues wealth, power, and an ever-changing vision of himself.
Along the way, Peer encounters the enigmatic Boyg, the Mountain King and his troll court, desert travellers, merchants, thieves, and the alluring Anitra. He gains and loses fortunes, assumes one identity after another, and repeatedly evades the responsibilities and relationships that might give his life meaning. Yet through all his wanderings, the steadfast Solveig continues to await his return.
Part folktale, part satire, and above all a poetic fantasy, Peer Gynt explores questions of identity, responsibility, and what it means to be oneself. Through Peer’s comic, fantastic, and sometimes tragic journey, Ibsen considers the consequences of avoiding reality and responsibility throughout one’s life.
First published in 1867, Peer Gynt was later adapted for the stage with incidental music by Edvard Grieg. Several pieces from Grieg’s score, including “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” have become among the most familiar works in classical music. This carefully restored edition presents R. Farquharson Sharp’s verse translation and introduction, together with Arthur Rackham’s imaginative illustrations.
About the author: Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian playwright and poet widely regarded as one of the founders of modern drama. Born in Skien, Norway, he spent many years in voluntary exile in Italy and Germany, where he wrote some of his most influential works. Although best known for realistic dramas such as A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and An Enemy of the People, Ibsen also produced ambitious poetic dramas, including Brand and Peer Gynt. His work helped shape modern theatre and established him as a major literary figure of the nineteenth century.
About the illustrator: Arthur Rackham (1867–1939) was an English artist and one of the leading illustrators of the Golden Age of British book illustration. Renowned for his expressive pen-and-ink drawings, delicate watercolours, and haunting depictions of fairy tales and folklore, he illustrated such classics as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. His illustrations for Peer Gynt, first published in 1936, bring Ibsen’s trolls, witches, landscapes, and dreamlike adventures to life in Rackham’s unmistakable style.
