Ibsen Plays: World Classics

The two epic plays in this volume stand, together with Peer Gynt and The Pretenders, at the fulcrum of Ibsen's career. Brand (1865) stated sharply and vividly the necessity of following one's private conscience and "being oneself." It created an immediate sensation and was hailed by Strindberg as "the voice of a Savonarola." Emperor and Galilean (1873), which Ibsen referred to as his masterpiece, is both his farewell to the epic drama and the forerunner of his great naturalistic prose plays that were to burst on the nineteenth century.
"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 center of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field."—George Steiner
"Crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana."—Kenneth Tynan
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is generally regarded as the father of modern theatre: "His influence on contemporaries and following generations, whether directly or indirectly ... can hardly be overestimated."—John Russell Taylor