Georg Brandes

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Not to be confused with George Brandis.

Georg Brandes
Georg Brandes, sketch, 1900
Georg Brandes, sketch, 1900
BornGeorg Morris Cohen Brandes
(1842-02-04)4 February 1842
Copenhagen, Denmark
Died19 February 1927(1927-02-19) (aged 85)
Copenhagen, Denmark
OccupationCritic
EducationUniversity of Copenhagen
RelativesEdvard Brandes (brother)
Signature

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (4 February 1842 – 19 February 1927) was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture. At the age of 30, Brandes formulated the principles of a new realism and naturalism, condemning hyper-aesthetic writing and also fantasy in literature. His literary goals were shared by some other authors, among them the Norwegian "realist" playwright Henrik Ibsen.

When Georg Brandes held a series of lectures in 1871 with the title "Main Currents in 19th-century Literature", he defined the

Det Radikale Venstre
.

Biography

Georg Brandes was born into a non-observant Jewish middle-class family in Copenhagen, the elder brother of prominent Danes Ernst Brandes and Edvard Brandes. He became a student at the University of Copenhagen in 1859 where he first studied jurisprudence. From this, however, his interests soon turned to philosophy and aesthetics. In 1862 he won the gold medal of the university for an essay on The Idea of Nemesis among the Ancients. Before this, indeed since 1858, he had shown a remarkable gift for verse-writing, the results of which, however, were not abundant enough to justify separate publication. Brandes did not collect his poems until as late as 1898. At the university, which he left in 1864, Brandes was influenced by the writings of Heiberg in criticism and Søren Kierkegaard in philosophy, influences which continued to leave traces on his work.[1]

Georg Brandes in his youth. 1868 drawing by Godtfred Rump.

In 1866, he contributed to the discussion of the works of Rasmus Nielsen in "Dualism in our Recent Philosophy". From 1865 to 1871 he traveled much in Europe, acquainting himself with the condition of literature in the principal centers of learning. His first important contribution to letters was his Aesthetic Studies (1868), where his maturer method is already foreshadowed in several brief monographs on Danish poets. In 1870 he published several important volumes, The French Aesthetics of the Present Day, dealing chiefly with Hippolyte Taine, Criticisms and Portraits, and a translation of The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill, whom he had met that year during a visit to England.[1]

The Modern Breakthrough

Main article: Modern Breakthrough

Brandes now took his place as the leading northern European critic, applying to local conditions and habits of thought the methods of Taine. He became Docent or reader in Aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen,

atheist. The authorities refused to appoint him, but his fitness for the post was so obvious that the chair of Aesthetics remained vacant for years, since no one else dared to place himself in comparison with Brandes.[1]

Danish first edition of Brandes' Hovedstrømninger i det 19de Aarhundredes Litteratur – Emigrantlitteraturen from 1872.

In the middle of these polemics, Brandes began to issue volumes of the most ambitious of his works, Main Currents in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century, of which four volumes appeared between 1872 and 1875 (English translation,[4] 1901–1905). The brilliant novelty of this criticism of the literature of major European countries at the beginning of the 19th century, and his description of the general revolt against the pseudo-classicism of the 18th century, at once attracted attention outside Denmark. The tumult which gathered round the person of the critic increased the success of the work, and the reputation of Brandes grew apace, especially in Germany and Russia.[1]

In 1877 Brandes left Copenhagen and settled in Berlin, taking a considerable part in the aesthetic life of that city. His political views, however, made

J. P. Jacobsen, Holger Drachmann, Edvard Brandes, Erik Skram, Sophus Schandorph, and Norwegians Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson,[3] but a conservative reaction against his "realistic" doctrines began around 1883, headed by Holger Drachmann.[5]

Later authorship

Among his later writings must be mentioned the monographs on

Frederick Paludan-Müller, his Men of the Modern Transition (1883), and his Essays (1889), are volumes essential to the proper study of modern Scandinavian literature. He wrote an excellent book on Poland (1888; English translation, 1903), and was one of the editors of the German version of Ibsen.[1]

The most important of his later works was his study of William Shakespeare (1897–1898), which was translated into English by William Archer and was highly acclaimed. It was, perhaps, history's most authoritative work on Shakespeare not principally intended for an English-speaking audience.[1] He was afterwards engaged in writing a history of modern Scandinavian literature. In his critical work, which extended over a wider field than that of any other living writer, Brandes was aided by a singularly charming style, lucid and reasonable, enthusiastic but without extravagance, brilliant and colored without affectation. In 1900 he collected his works for the first time in a complete and popular edition and began to work on a German edition, completed in 1902.[1]

He published Main Currents in Nineteenth-Century Literature in 1906 (six volumes). This book was among the 100 best books for education selected in 1929 by

Schlegel blows revolutionary melodies on the great romantic 'wonder-horn'."[7]

Personal life and last years

Brandes in 1904

In the late 1880s, Brandes fought against what he saw as the hypocrisy of prudish sexuality, which caused a rift with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.[8][9] Between the years of 1886 and 1888 Brandes was engaged in a relationship with the Swedish author Victoria Benedictsson, who wrote Penningar and Fru Marianne under the male pseudonym Ernst Ahlgren. Benedictsson committed suicide in a Copenhagen hotel room,[10] and the relationship with Brandes has later been blamed as the cause for her death.[8]

In the late 1880s, Brandes turned to concentrating on "great personalities" as the source of culture. In this period, he discovered Friedrich Nietzsche, not only introducing him to Scandinavian culture but indirectly to the whole world.[11] The series of lectures that he gave on Nietzsche's thought, which he described as "aristocratic radicalism", were the first to present Nietzsche as a world cultural figure in need of full intellectual notice. Of Brandes' description of his philosophy, Nietzsche himself remarked: "The expression 'aristocratic radicalism', which you employ, is very good. It is, permit me to say, the cleverest thing that I have yet read about myself".[12] In 1909 the lectures were edited and published as the monograph Friedrich Nietzsche, which included the complete Nietzsche/Brandes correspondence as well as two essays in homage to the late Nietzsche's life and thought. Translated into English by A. G. Chater, the volume was published by Heinemann in 1911 and Nietzsche's thought was thus able to reach a significant English language audience before World War I. It was Brandes who, in an 1888 letter,[13] wrote to Nietzsche advising him to read the works of Søren Kierkegaard, with whom his thought had much in common. There is no evidence, however, that Nietzsche ever read any of Kierkegaard's works.

The key idea of "aristocratic radicalism" went on to influence most of the later works of Brandes and resulted in voluminous biographies Wolfgang

Goethe (1914–15), Francois de Voltaire (1916–17), Gaius Julius Cæsar 1918 and Michelangelo (1921).[3]

In the 1900s, Brandes fought the Danish political establishment on several occasions, but eventually had to curb his acidic attacks. However, his international reputation was growing.

Clarté, as well as E. D. Morel.[8]

Brandes argued against the historicity of Jesus and was a proponent of the Christ myth theory. He published Sagnet om Jesus which was translated as Jesus: A Myth in 1926.[14] He was an atheist.[15][16]

Legacy

Brandes stands as one of the most influential inspirations of Danish culture, an equal of Holberg,

feminists have regarded his attitude of sexual equality as being inconsequential.[8]

His brother Edvard (1847–1931), also a well-known critic, was the author of a number of plays, and of two psychological novels: A Politician (1889), and Young Blood (1899). He became an outstanding political figure of the party

Det Radikale Venstre.[3]

Books

  • Søren Kierkegaard: A Critical Presentation in Outline (Søren Kierkegaard: En kritisk Fremstilling i Grundrids) (1877)


See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brandes, Georg Morris Cohen". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 427.
  2. ^ Ole Friis Thellufsen, Artikel: Georg Brandes, Aarhus University, 29 July 2009
  3. ^ a b c d e Georg Brandes at Gyldendals Åbne Encyklopædi
  4. ^ "Review of Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. I". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 92 (2390): 207–208. 21 August 1901.
  5. ^ Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann at Gyldendals Åbne Encyklopædi
  6. ^ "Will Durant's 100 Best Books for an Education on Lists of Bests". Listsofbests.com. 12 April 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  7. ^ See p. 72 Main Currents in Nineteenth, Century Literature Vol. 2 Georg Brandes, 1906.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Georg Brandes – Forfatterportræt ved Jørgen Knudsen Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine at Arkiv for Dansk Litteratur
  9. OCLC 20699747
    .
  10. ^ Victoria Benedictsson at Gyldendals Åbne Encyklopædi
  11. ^ Georg Brandes: A Biographical Note – Edouard d'Araille / Introduction to 'Friedrich Nietzsche' (2002, LTMI)
  12. ^ Nietzsche, Letter to Georg Brandes – December 2nd 1887.
  13. ^ Georg Brandes, Letter to Nietzsche – January 11th 1888.
  14. ISBN 1-56338-280-6
  15. ISBN 9781472412010
    .
  16. ^ "Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality". Ingram brothers. 1 January 1893.

Further reading

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Georg Brandes.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Georg Brandes.
Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about Georg Brandes.

Individual books

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