This Translation, though unrhymed, preserves throughout the various rhythms of the original.
“In Brand the hero is an embodied protest against the poverty of spirit and half-heartedness that Ibsen rebelled against in his countrymen. In Peer Gynt the hero is himself the embodiment of that spirit. In Brand the fundamental antithesis, upon which, as its central theme, the drama is constructed, is the contrast between the spirit of compromise on the one hand, and the motto ‘everything or nothing’ on the other. And Peer Gynt is the very incarnation of a compromising dread of decisive committal to any one course. In Brand the problem of self-realisation and the relation of the individual to his surroundings is obscurely struggling for recognition, and in Peer Gynt it becomes the formal theme upon which all the fantastic variations of the drama are built up. In both plays alike the problems of heredity and the influence of early surroundings are more than touched upon; and both alike culminate in the doctrine that the only redeeming power on earth or in heaven is the power of love.”—Mr. P. H. Wicksteed.
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THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL
(Or “REVIZÓR.”)
A RUSSIAN COMEDY.
By NIKOLAI VASILIYEVICH GOGOL.
Translated from the original Russian, with Introduction and Notes, by A. A. SYKES, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.
Though one of the most brilliant and characteristic of Gogol’s works, and well-known on the Continent, the present is the first translation of his Revizór, or Inspector-General, which has appeared in English. A satire on Russian administrative functionaries, the Revizór is a comedy marked by continuous gaiety and invention, full of “situation,” each development of the story accentuating the satire and emphasising the characterisation, the whole play being instinct with life and interest. Every here and there occurs the note of caprice, of naïveté, of unexpected fancy, characteristically Russian. The present translation will be found to be admirably fluent, idiomatic, and effective.
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