Georg Brandes Photo by S. Mellor

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was born on February 4, 1842 in Copenhagen to a Jewish family. He was a Danish critic and biographer, who is regarded as one of the great systematic literary critics of modern times. He was educated in law and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and was influenced by philosopher John Stuart Mill and the French critics Hippolyte Taine, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, and Ernest Renan, all of whom he later met in Paris. He adopted a broad, cosmopolitan view of literary history previously unknown in Scandinavia. In the early part of his career, Brandes wrote several critical essays on the works of Hans Christian Andersen. About the "Ugly Duckling" Brandes writes:

"How does the swan end up? Unfortunately as a domesticated animal. Here is one instance in which it is difficult to forgive the great author. How can you, you poet [...] have it in your heart to let the swan end in that way? Let it die, if need be! That would be tragic and grand. Let it lift its wings, fly away through the sky jubilantly celebrating its beauty, but not this: 'Some little children came into the garden. They threw bread and seeds out into the water, and the children ran to get father and mother. Bread and cake were thrown into the water, and they all said, [that] the new one is the prettiest! So young and beautiful! And the old swans bowed before him'"

After traveling widely in Europe, he returned in 1871 to lecture at the University of Copenhagen. The lecture series was published as Hovedstrømninger i det 19de aarhundredes litteratur, 6 vol. written from 1872 to 1890 [a modern translation Main Currents in 19th Century literature was published by Russell & Russell in this century]. He was denied the professorship of aesthetics by university authorities because of his Jewish parentage, his outspoken atheism, and his generally radical views. Brandes went to Berlin in 1877 and lived there for five years, writing and lecturing. When he returned to Denmark, a group of admirers guaranteed him a yearly stipend as a private professor. His fame grew among scholars at home and abroad. Brandes introduced Nietzsche to the North in 1889 with his work "Aristokratisk radicalisme" [Aristocratic Radicalism].When the Liberals gained power in 1892, the ministry gave Brandes a substantial pension, and in 1902 he was finally elected professor of aesthetics. He befriended many of the well-known personages in Scandinavian literary and cultural circles, such as Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Jonas Lie, Alexander Kielland, and August Strindberg. Brandes's literary output consisted of 33 volumes of history, biography, and criticism. He died on February 19,1927 at the age of 86.

S. Mellor