"At the heart of this book is the series of eight critical introductions written by James McFarlane for the successive volumes of the Oxford Ibsen as they appeared over a twenty year period in the 1960s and 1970s. Taken individually, these prefaces examine with sensitivity and insight the entire corpus of Ibsen's dramatic authorship in its chronological development - and exercise which Ibsen himself urged on any ready who wished to reach the fullest understanding of his work. Taken together, an published as they now are between the cover of this book, these prefaces constitute a uniquely authoritative account of Isben's dramatic achievement." -- back cover