This volume contains four of the later plays of Ibsen, translated into English by Una Ellis-Fermor. Between them Rosmersholm, The Master Builder, Little Eyolf, and John Gabriel Borkman comprise some of Ibsen's noblest thought and finest dramatic art. In these final 'studies of conversation' he was far less concerned with man in relation to society and much more with the inner spiritual conflicts of the individual. There is the classical conflict between love and duty, but the latter is represented by Ibsen as an arid negation of the joy of life.