Brand: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Brand, credited to Henrik Ibsen, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Brand by Henrik Ibsen. (Translated by Charles Harold Herford.) Read in English by Expatriate Inflamed by what he saw as his Norwegian homeland's shocking betrayal of Denmark after the Prussian invasion of Danish territory, Ibsen wrote "Brand" as an indictment of human complacency and rigidity of mind. Composing this "dramatic poem" from his self-imposed exile in Italy, Ibsen had long agonized over the stodgy provincialism of his countrymen, but the abandonment of Denmark took on the dimensions in his imagination of a human tragedy far surpassing his own personal experiences. Brand is a priest who refuses to compromise, at the cost of great suffering to others, and who lives by unrealizable ideals. The play revolves around a cast of remarkable characters, such as Gerd the mad peasant girl with delusions of God; Ejnar the complacent artist; and Agnes the devoted lover. Ibsen's breakthrough work, "Brand" could be seen as the true beginning of Ibsen's career, and although (or because?) it was at the time the most fiercely-debated work of literature in Scandinavian history, it always remained one of the playwright's favorite productions. The true genius of the work lies in the judicious balance of its indictment of philistine complacency and its warning against intolerant zealotry. The ambiguous character of Brand himself, principled and heroic while flawed, was seen by Ibsen as representing himself at his best. "Give Nothing, or give All," said Brand, over and over, with stirring consequences.. ( Expatriate)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Brand
• Author credits: Henrik Ibsen
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 11
• Listed recording duration: 4:57:56

Catalogue topics

• ibsen
• modern drama
• Scandinavian literature
• norwegian literature

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 20:55
2. 01 - Act I — 38:03
3. 02 - Act II, Pt. 1 — 20:42
4. 03 - Act II, Pt. 2 — 22:14
5. 04 - Act III, Pt. 1 — 23:05
6. 05 - Act III, Pt. 2 — 25:20
7. 06 - Act IV, Pt. 1 — 32:40
8. 07 - Act IV, Pt. 2 — 27:35
9. 08 - Act V, Pt. 1 — 31:05
10. 09 - Act V, Pt. 2 — 28:18
11. 10 - Act V, Pt. 3 — 27:58

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.