A Fortunate Man
Published on 10. June 2025
768 pages
978-1-68137-928-9 (ISBN)
Description
A Nobel Prize-winner's unforgettable novel about a man who sheds the stifling country life of his childhood for the excitement of Copenhagen.
This masterpiece of Danish literature, admired by the likes of Georg Lukács and Ernst Bloch, is now available in a new English translation.
A Fortunate Man tells the story of Per Sidenius, a Lutheran pastor's son who revolts against his family and flees the backwaters of Jutland for Copenhagen. Per is handsome, ambitious, and hungry for the technological future of the twentieth century. He studies engineering and draws up plans for a new port and new canals, for harnessing wind and wave energy to transform Denmark into a commercial giant. Fully persuaded of his own genius, Per first repels and then attracts Jakobe Salomon, a young Jewish woman whose family is eager to underwrite his plans. They fall in love and get engaged; gradually Jakobe opens Per's eyes to the wider world. Meanwhile, he also falls under the spell of Dr. Nathan, a popular philosopher who rails against the conservative powers that be. But ultimately these powers win out, Per's relationship with Jakobe founders, and he goes home to Jutland and marries a pastor's daughter. Though fortunate, he is never happy.
One of the last great nineteenth-century novels and Henrik Pontoppidan's masterpiece, A Fortunate Man anatomizes and skewers Danish society, from the small towns to the metropolis. Paul Larkin's dazzling translation brings out the wide range and full force of a novel admired by Georg Lukács and praised by Ernst Bloch as "one of the foundational texts of world literature."
This translation was funded in part by a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.
This masterpiece of Danish literature, admired by the likes of Georg Lukács and Ernst Bloch, is now available in a new English translation.
A Fortunate Man tells the story of Per Sidenius, a Lutheran pastor's son who revolts against his family and flees the backwaters of Jutland for Copenhagen. Per is handsome, ambitious, and hungry for the technological future of the twentieth century. He studies engineering and draws up plans for a new port and new canals, for harnessing wind and wave energy to transform Denmark into a commercial giant. Fully persuaded of his own genius, Per first repels and then attracts Jakobe Salomon, a young Jewish woman whose family is eager to underwrite his plans. They fall in love and get engaged; gradually Jakobe opens Per's eyes to the wider world. Meanwhile, he also falls under the spell of Dr. Nathan, a popular philosopher who rails against the conservative powers that be. But ultimately these powers win out, Per's relationship with Jakobe founders, and he goes home to Jutland and marries a pastor's daughter. Though fortunate, he is never happy.
One of the last great nineteenth-century novels and Henrik Pontoppidan's masterpiece, A Fortunate Man anatomizes and skewers Danish society, from the small towns to the metropolis. Paul Larkin's dazzling translation brings out the wide range and full force of a novel admired by Georg Lukács and praised by Ernst Bloch as "one of the foundational texts of world literature."
This translation was funded in part by a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.
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Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943) was one of Denmark's great realist writers, a member of the Modern Breakthrough movement whose works are often compared to those of Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola. The son of a clergyman, he studied engineering in Copenhagen but then left to become a teacher and writer. For his numerous novels and short stories, he won the 1917 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Paul Larkin is an Irish writer, translator, and critic. He worked for five years in the Danish Merchant Navy before taking a degree in Scandinavian and Celtic Studies. He later trained as a film director with the BBC and had a long career in journalism and film. He lives in the Gaeltacht area of County Donegal, Ireland, where Irish is the predominant language.
Flemming Behrendt is a Danish journalist and literary critic who has written extensively about the work of Henrik Pontoppidan.
Paul Larkin is an Irish writer, translator, and critic. He worked for five years in the Danish Merchant Navy before taking a degree in Scandinavian and Celtic Studies. He later trained as a film director with the BBC and had a long career in journalism and film. He lives in the Gaeltacht area of County Donegal, Ireland, where Irish is the predominant language.
Flemming Behrendt is a Danish journalist and literary critic who has written extensively about the work of Henrik Pontoppidan.
