Vilhelm's Room
Published on 4. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-0-241-62898-0 (ISBN)
Description
The unforgettable final novel from the great Danish writer and author of The Copenhagen Trilogy
'Recently escaped a long, unhappy marriage - aged 51, but youthful in spirit - wonderful son, aged 15 - household literary name - summerhouse - large flat in the city centre - temporarily incapacitated by a nervous breakdown - prefers a motorist.'
Vilhelm is gone; the room where he and Lise once loved each other will soon be destroyed. When Lise places a lonely hearts advert in the newspaper, she sets off a train of tragicomic events that culminates in an annihilating, inevitable finale. Tove Ditlevsen's final novel is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.
Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
'Recently escaped a long, unhappy marriage - aged 51, but youthful in spirit - wonderful son, aged 15 - household literary name - summerhouse - large flat in the city centre - temporarily incapacitated by a nervous breakdown - prefers a motorist.'
Vilhelm is gone; the room where he and Lise once loved each other will soon be destroyed. When Lise places a lonely hearts advert in the newspaper, she sets off a train of tragicomic events that culminates in an annihilating, inevitable finale. Tove Ditlevsen's final novel is a masterful conclusion to a great work of writing: a blackly funny and devastating tour-de-force that pulses with life even as it journeys towards death.
Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
Reviews / Votes
Ditlevsen makes this darkest of all material fascinating, perversely likable and occasionally revelatory. She's a brilliant writer and formidable thinker * Guardian * Reading Vilhelm's Room, the final novel from the great Danish writer Tove Ditlevsen, what hits you first is how wonderful her sentences are [...] Ditlevsen's unusual way of seeing the world, and her sprightly humour, run throughout this short book, [...] which now appears in English for the first time in a spirited translation by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell [...] A beguiling, often confounding novel from one of the 20th century's most original writers * Observer *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
180 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-62898-0 (9780241628980)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Tove Ditlevsen (Author)
Tove Ditlevsen was born in 1917 in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Her first volume of poetry was published when she was in her early twenties, and was followed by many more books, including the novels The Faces and Vilhelm's Room and her autobiographical masterpiece, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and died by suicide in 1976.
Sophia Hersi Smith (Translator)
Sophia Hersi Smith is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Jennifer Russell, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.
Jennifer Russell (Translator)
Jennifer Russell is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Sophia Hersi Smith, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.
Tove Ditlevsen was born in 1917 in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Her first volume of poetry was published when she was in her early twenties, and was followed by many more books, including the novels The Faces and Vilhelm's Room and her autobiographical masterpiece, Childhood (1967), Youth (1967) and Dependency (1971). She married four times and died by suicide in 1976.
Sophia Hersi Smith (Translator)
Sophia Hersi Smith is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Jennifer Russell, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.
Jennifer Russell (Translator)
Jennifer Russell is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Sophia Hersi Smith, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Olga Ravn, Tove Ditlevsen and Solvej Balle.