Danish critic and scholar, who had great influence on the Scandinavian literature from 1870s through the turn of the century.

Brandes was born in Copenhagen of middle-class Jewish parents. He studied at the Univerisity of Copenhagen, receiving his master's degree in aesthetics in 1864. Brandes worked then as lecturer and drama critic. Under the influence of Hippolyte Taine he turned away from the Hegelian philosophy and published his doctoral thesis DIE FRANZ. ÄSTHETIK UNSERE ZEIT in 1870, which was an analysis of French aesthetics with special emphasis on Taine.

Next year Brandes made an explosive impact on Danish and Scandinavian cultural life with the first of his public lectures on HØVEDSTRØMNINGER I DET 19DE AARHUNDREDES LITTERATUR (1872-87). He called for writers the reject the fantasy and abstract idealism and instead to work in the service of progressive ideas and the reform of modern society. However, Brandes was denied the chair in aesthetics at the university that had been promised to him - a reaction to his Jewish origin, atheism and unorthodox thinking.

Brandes became principal leader of naturalistic movement in Scandinavian literature, befriending with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, Jens Peter Jacobsen, Jonas Lie, Alexander Kielland, and August Strindberg.

HOVEDSTRØMMINGER I DET NITTENDE AARHUNDREDS LITTERATUR, Brandes major work in the 1870s, caused sensation, when its first volumes appeared. Brandes argued, that the most significant literature in Germany, France and England from 1789 to 1848 stemmed more or less from the French Revolution. Accirding to this view he criticized such writers as Coleridge, Novalis and Lamartine, whom he saw representing the conservative order.

In 1888, in a further series of public lectures in Copenhagen, Brandes 'discovered' the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Inspired by Nietzschean 'aristocratic radicalism' Brandes admired geniuses as best products of high culture and wrote also biographies of such great historical figures as William Shakespeare, J.W. von Goethe, Voltaire, Julius Caesar and Michelangelo.

During his later years Brandes travelled widely. University of Copenhagen had awarded Brandes after his thirty years work a full professorship. Brandes's opposition to World War I and religious scepticism made him still controversial figure. He died on February 19, 1927. By the time of his death his critical method was outmoded but biographical works on Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and William Shakespeare offer deep psychological portraits of these authors.
 

For further reading: Georg Brandes by B. Nolin (1976); Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1983); World Authors 1900-1950, ed by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996)

Selected works:

• AESTJETISKE STUDIER, 1868
• KRITIKER OG PORTRAITER, 1870
• DEN FRANSKE AESTHETIK, 1870
• HØVEDSTRØMNINGAR I DET 19DE AARHUNDREDS LITTERATUR, 1872-87 (6 vols.) - MAIN CURRENTS IN 19TH CENTURY LITERATURE
• DANSKE GIGTERE, 1877 - DANISH POETS
• SØREN KIRKEGAARD, 1877
• TEGNÉR, 1878
• DISRAELI, 1878
• LORD BEACONSFIELD, 1879
• FERDINAND LASSALLE, 1981
• DET MODERNE GJENNEMBRUDS MÆND, 1883 - MEN OF THE MODERN BREAKTHROUGH
• LUDVIG HOLBERG, 1884
• BERLIN, 1885
• INDTRYKT FRA POLEN, 1888 - POLAND: A STUDY OF THE LAND, PEOPLE AND LITERATURE
• INDTRYK FRA RUSLAND, 1888 - IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA
• ARISTOKRATISK RADIKALISME, 1889
• ESSAYS, 1889
• SHAKESPEARE, 1895 - SHAKESPEARE: A CRITICAL STUDY
• SAMLADE SKRIFTER, 1899-1909
• LEVNET, 1905-08
• FUGLEPERSPEKTIV, 1913
• GOETHE, 1914 - transl.
• VOLTAIRE, 1916 - transl.
• VERDENSKRIEGEN, 1916
• JULIUS CAESAR, 1918
• TRAGDIENS ANDEN DEL: FREDSLUTNINGEN, 1919
• TALER, 1920
• MICHELANGELO, 1921 - MICHELANGELO: HIS LIFE, HIS TIME, HIS ERA
• HELLAS, 1925 - HELLAS: TRAVELS IN GREECE
• SAGNET OM JESUS,1925 - JESUS, A MYTH, 1925

Compiled by Kuusankoski Public Library, Finland (© 1997) and René Märtin (© 1998-2001).