Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem Peer Gynt is (as Ibsen was emphatic in asserting) first and foremost a poetic fantasy, and only incidentally a satire. It is a fantasy woven out of the folklore of its author's country and embroidered by his wealth of thought and keen wit. There is a philosophy to be found in it, no doubt; but Ibsen did not set out to write a philosophical poem, but a fantasy. It contains many a shaft of satire, no doubt; but it was not primarily intended as a satirical poem, but as sheer fantasy. This cannot be too emphatically insisted upon, or too diligently remem bered in reading the poem. In a letter to his publisher, soon after Peer Gynt had made its appearance, Ibsen wrote: I learn that the book has created great excitement in Norway. This does not trouble me in the least; but both there and in Denmark they have discovered much more satire in it than was intended by me. Why can they not read the book as a poem? For as such I wrote it. The satirical passages are pretty well isolated. But if the Norwegians of to-day recognize themselves, as it would appear they do, in the character of Peer Gynt, that is the good people's own affair. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.