New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-28


SCANDINAVIAN Foundation New York City.
For Americans, perhaps for most
persons of the English speaking and
reading world, lbscn and Strindberg
seem to have set the keynote of modern
Scandinavian literature. When we pick
up book by Scandinavian author in
English translation we cock our ears
for lbsen ovcrtoncs and look wistfuliy
Tor Strindberg cloud. And yet we
know that Bjornson had a lighter touch
in his Incompatible peasant stories,
and that Selma Lagerlof does not en-
gage herself with the sorrows Of an
old and spoiled world. Those of US
who know anything about scandinavian
art must recall its cheerful spirit. and
scandinavian music does possess lyric
Brightness There is more Of sunshine
and dancing in Grieg than score of
Niennese musical operas. The prevailing
tendency in all Scandinavian countries
toward bright colored interior decora-
tons is perhaps the surest proof that
the people of these northern lands love
cheerfulness and gayety in their i'm
mediate surroundings. Which only
proves that it is hardly safe to judge
nations and their spiritual life by the
works of one or two Of their great
writer's, no matter how great these
writer's may be.
The Americans Scandinavia Founda-
ton has recently published in an Eng
glish translation Jens Peter Jacob
Gems great novel. marie Glubbe"
Jacobsen was a Dane, Il contemporary
OF Ibsen. and much Influenced by the
sane trend of thought which produced
from the latter dramas of life problems
Of universal appeal. Yet Jacobsen
favors some Of the earlier French and
English writer's of ;hc last century
much more than any scandinavian
writer of his time. There is as much
wit and sapiencv in "Marc Grubbe, .
perhaps his chief work. as in any vol
ume of Balzac. and the Dane is never
so coarse "Maric Grubbe" is based
on historic facts. 1t is a story of a
seventeenth century lady. Marie, the
heroine Of the tale. is the daughter
OF a Danish petty noble. She becomes
a court favoritc in Copenhagen, mar
rics the Kings half brother. an agree
able young rake, divorces him after
many tribulations, takes her fling in
the great world Of Paris and other
Continental cities and has innumcra
Bile love affairs. She marries again,
this time a dull person. a minor pro-
vincial official whom she deserts for
her husbands coachman. Her peasant
lover beats Marie in her old age, which
on the whole. is perhaps tho happiest
period Of her life.
Not a happy story The action is
downward rather than upward or on a
dead lcvei and yet Jacobsen's novel is
on the whole. gay, bright, full of meat
and Old World wisdom Marie, as We
first meet her, is an appcalingly beau
tiful. sensitive and proud young thing
of sixteen or seventeen: She IS mortalil
humiiatcd by her fathers conduct
The Old fellow has sunk into an old age
Of consciousness. He has dcllcd tho
memory Of Marie's mother by taking
up with peasant hussy. But in the
course of the story Marie grows hcl
she'll to protect herself against the
world The attractive fawn OF tho
early tale sprouts horns in her old age
Just as her father had done.
Jacobsen is distinctly a literary aris.
tocrat. He has the eye of the painter
the language Of the poet Che also wrote
verse). and yet he is ever close tc
mother earth. His observations. de
spite his fastidiousness Of form. arc
homelv and therefore appealing m5
memorable. He draws vivid pictures OF
HIS
mark was still great power. He gives
glimpse o. one Of the many wars be
tween Sweden and Denmark. His dc
scription of scene in a Copenhagen
market place after the Swedcs have
landed on Danish soil might pass for {
realistic picture Of Cooper Union JUS
after the United States declared wal
ON Germany. Denmark had her paci
fists who were accused Of being Swed
ISL propagandists. Is there nothing
new under the sun?
1t seems rather curious that TIN,
Danish classic has not been done into
English before. marie Grubbo' wa;
written in the '7O's Of the last century
and Jacobsen died at the age Of thirty
eight in 1885. The English speaking
world is repaid for this bclated rccog
milton OF a great writer by Miss Lar
sens mastery translation. Here is {
great novel from q foreign pen whcf
has lost comparatively little Of its
greatness in the translation.