Peer Gynt and Brand (Penguin Classics)

Masterful versions of Ibsen’s two great verse plays by one of our greatest living poets, Geoffrey Hill.

These two masterly and contrasting verse dramas by Ibsen made his reputation as a playwright. The fantastical adventures of the irrepressible Peer Gynt - poet, idler, procrastinator, seducer - draw on Norwegian folklore to conjure up mountains, kidnappings, shipwrecks, and trolls in an exuberant celebration of life; while Brand, an unsparing vision of an idealistic priest who lives by his steely faith, explores free will, sacrifice, and the self. This volume brings together the poet Geoffrey Hill’s acclaimed stage version of Brand with a new poetic rendering of Peer Gynt, published for the first time.