Reading Order
Peer Gynt Reading Order
Peer Gynt (1867) by Henrik Ibsen is his most fantastical and most personal play — a dramatic poem organized around the life of Peer Gynt, a boastful Norwegian peasant who spends his life avoiding the commitment to himself that would make him real. Peer seduces Ingrid on her wedding day, abandons her; he goes to the mountain kingdom of the trolls and nearly marries the Troll King's daughter; he sails to Morocco; he becomes a slave trader, then a prophet, then a lunatic asylum director; he returns to Norway at the end of his life to discover that the Button Moulder is waiting to melt him down — because he has not been sufficiently himself to deserve either Heaven or Hell, and his soul will be recycled like a used button. The play is an extended meditation on the concept of 'being oneself' and its opposite, the 'trollish' principle of 'be sufficient to yourself' (selfish self-sufficiency as opposed to authentic selfhood). Ibsen later repudiated the play as too personal and too romantic, but it became the most performed of his works and remains, with its Grieg incidental music, one of the most celebrated dramatic poems in the Scandinavian tradition.
Where to start
Peer Gynt (1867) — the complete text in the Rolf Fjelde or the Michael Meyer translation. Best Ibsen dramatic poem reading order: Brand → Peer Gynt. The prose plays came after: A Doll's House → Hedda Gabler → The Wild Duck → The Master Builder.
Complete Peer Gynt Book List
- 1Buy
Peer Gynt
Henrik Ibsen·1867·The complete dramatic poem — Peer, Solveig, Åse, the Troll King, and the Button Moulder. The most fantastical and most personal of Ibsen's works; the Rolf Fjelde translation (University of Minnesota Press) is highly regarded for its verse quality - 2Buy
Brand
Henrik Ibsen·1866·The companion dramatic poem — Brand's uncompromising commitment to principle at any cost. The companion as the opposite of Peer Gynt: where Peer avoids himself at every turn, Brand commits himself absolutely to God and principle, and is destroyed by the absoluteness of his commitment - 3Buy
A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen·1879·The companion — Nora's departure. The companion investigation of the same theme in a realistic mode: Nora's departure is the action that Peer keeps avoiding throughout his entire life — the refusal to remain what others want her to be and the choice of authentic selfhood - 4Buy
The Wild Duck
Henrik Ibsen·1884·The companion — the Ekdal family and the wild duck in the attic. The companion investigation of the same theme: the relationship between the life-lie (the illusion that sustains a person who cannot face themselves) and the truth that would destroy them - 5Buy
Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe·1808·Goethe's companion investigation of the same theme — the philosopher who has mastered all knowledge and still lacks something. The companion as the protagonist: both Faust and Peer Gynt are extraordinary figures who spend their lives in restless pursuit and discover at the end that they have not found what they were seeking - 6Buy
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes·1605·Cervantes's companion investigation of the same figure — the man whose imagination transforms the world he lives in. The companion investigation of the same comic-tragic mode: both Peer and Don Quixote are figures who invent themselves, who live by their own stories, and whose story is the investigation of the relationship between the imagined self and the real one - 7Buy
The Castle
Franz Kafka·1926·Kafka's companion investigation of the man who cannot find his way to the authority that would confirm his identity. The companion investigation of the same predicament as Peer Gynt — the man whose identity is never confirmed — but in the modern bureaucratic mode rather than the romantic fantastic mode - 8Buy
Egmont
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe·1788·Goethe's companion dramatic poem about the historical figure who refuses to compromise his nature in the face of political power. The companion in the German classical tradition: Egmont and Peer Gynt are companion figures, both men who are defined by their instinctive vitality, but where Egmont's integrity is tragically heroic, Peer's vitality is comic and evasive
Peer Gynt — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the theme of Peer Gynt?
The central theme of Peer Gynt is the contrast between authentic selfhood ('being oneself' in the fullest sense) and the 'trollish' principle of 'being sufficient to yourself' — selfish self-sufficiency that is actually the avoidance of commitment to any real identity. Peer spends his entire life in motion: he seduces, boasts, travels, speculates, proselytizes, and escapes, always finding reasons not to commit himself to any particular life or any particular person (except Solveig, who waits for him throughout). The Button Moulder at the end of the play tells him that he must be melted down because he has not been sufficiently himself to deserve Hell (which requires real sinfulness) or Heaven (which requires real virtue) — he has simply avoided. Ibsen's play is a sustained investigation of what it means to actually be oneself, as opposed to the comfortable evasions that constitute most lives.
What is the Grieg Peer Gynt Suite?
The Grieg Peer Gynt Suite refers to two orchestral suites (Op. 46 and Op. 55) that the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg extracted from the incidental music he composed for the 1876 premiere of Ibsen's play. Grieg composed 26 pieces for the original production; the most famous pieces in the suites are 'Morning Mood,' 'Åse's Death,' 'Anitra's Dance,' and 'In the Hall of the Mountain King.' The suites became independently famous and are now performed far more often than the play itself; they are among the most frequently heard pieces of Romantic orchestral music. The collaboration between Ibsen and Grieg on Peer Gynt is one of the most celebrated partnerships in Scandinavian cultural history.
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