Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1936. Ruddy orange full-cloth boards, gilt cover and spine titles, design, moderate shelf wear; few small numbers at lower spine area. Features bright stylized titles and two whimsically impish troll creatures. Deckled pages generally very good. Gold monochromatic silhouette collage of magical, good and nefarious characters at endpapers. Frontispiece plate w/intact fine tissue guard: "Peer Before the King of the Trolls. Bind fine; hinges intact. Features one dozen smooth color plates with captioned tissue guards. In addition, profusely illustrated with headers, tailpieces, partial-page vignettes throughout. Former edition of the Girard College Library of Philadelphia; punch-stamp at title page, couple small stamps to copyright, neat card pocket inside back cover. Apparently a reference stored example with near perfect plates and captioned page guards. Among the masterpieces of world literature, this early verse drama by the celebrated Norwegian playwright humorously yet profoundly explores the virtues, vices, and follies common to all humanity as represented in the person of Peer Gynt, a charming but irresponsible young peasant. Based on Norwegian folklore and Ibsen’s own imaginative inventions, the play relates the roguish life of the world-wandering Peer, who finds wealth and fame - but never happiness - redeemed by love in the end. As the play opens the young farmer attends a wedding and meets Solveig, the woman who is eventually to be his salvation. However, the rascally Peer then kidnaps the bride and later abandons her in the wilderness. This dismal performance is followed by adventures in many lands. After these soul-chilling exploits, an old and embittered Peer returns to Norway, eventually finding solace in the arms of the faithful Solveig. Imbued with poetic mysticism and romanticism, in Peer we find a rebellious character in search of an ultimate truth that always seems just out of reach. In this sense Peer can be seen as an alter ego of Ibsen himself, whose lifelong search for artistic and moral certainties resulted in the great later plays (Hedda Gabler, The Wild Duck, An Enemy of the People, etc.) Opening scene: "The action, which begins in the early years of the ninteenth century and ends somewhere about 1867, takes place partly in the Gudbrandsdal and on the surrounding mountain-tops, partly on the coast of Morocco, in the Sahara Desert, in the Cairo Lunatic Asylum, at sea, etc." From colophon: "Printed in Edinburgh - the text in Bembo type by R & R Clark, Limited, and the colour plates by Messrs. McLagan & Cumming." 256 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Good. Illus. by Rackham, Arthur. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.