I tried reading this years ago but grew bored and abandoned it halfway through. My second attempt at reading it has proved to be much more successful. I thoroughly enjoyed this story of a compulsive liar and romancer who nonetheless has amazing adventures and never quite succumbs to the temptation to lose his egotism! There are trolls and witches and monsters aplenty to keep him on his toes. 
 Peer Gynt is a play but it reads almost like a novel in verse. It must be a difficult play to stage because there are so many changes of scene and some of the locations are rather complicated for set designers to produce! Now I want to watch it performed on a stage with Grieg's music in the background. 
 Act 4 is my favourite part of the play, a strange and funny romp through the deserts of Morocco and thence to a madhouse in Egypt where Peer finally achieves his dream of becoming an 'emperor'. But my favourite line in the play occurs in Act 5 when Peer is on the verge of drowning and is comforted by the 'mysterious stranger' who tells him not to worry because "nobody dies right in the middle of Act 5." A nice metafictional touch... 
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 It is now February 2015 and I have just re-read this play, in a different edition (Oxford University Press) with a different translator, and I thoroughly enjoyed it again. It is possibly my favourite play; and once again, Act 4 impressed me the most. So much happens in the play that it's very difficult to pick out highlights -- the entire play is one big highlight -- but I would like to mention Peer's proposed scheme for flooding the Sahara and turning it green as an idea far ahead of its time.