The Widow's Son

Bang, Herman, 1857-1912Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 25K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Enkens Søn by Herman BangAuthor: Bang, Herman, 1857-1912,Language: Danish, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

Herman Bang was an important Danish modernist writer, and Enkens Søn (The Widow's Son), written in Danish, belongs to the canon of Scandinavian literature. Bang excels at portraying marginal figures and family relationships with delicate, slightly impressionistic strokes, and his narratives often build emotional tension through unnoticed details. This work is suitable as an entry point for understanding the transition in late nineteenth-century Nordic literature: it both continues realism's concern with society and family and heralds modern psychological description. As a public-domain e-book, the text is freely available and suitable as original-language reading for literary researchers, Nordic literature enthusiasts, and learners of Danish. While reading, note the shifts in narrative perspective and the emotional function of landscape description, which are typical features of Bang's style. Be aware that translation quality varies; choose a reliable edition and supplement it with biographical and historical background.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers who enjoy Nordic literature and want to expand their reading of Danish classics
Scholars and students studying the transition in late nineteenth-century Scandinavian literature
Intermediate and advanced language learners of Danish who need public-domain original materials
Serious fiction readers interested in family and marginal-figure themes

Not a good fit for

Genre-fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced narratives
Casual readers who know no Danish and are unwilling to use a translation
Readers impatient with the late nineteenth-century literary sensibility and slow-paced description

Reading tips

First learn about Herman Bang's life and the background of modern Danish literature before entering the text.
Pay attention to narrative perspective and the emotional hints in landscape description, and revisit key passages afterward.
Danish learners can read through once without worrying about full comprehension, then read closely a second time for sentence structure.
If reading a translation, prefer an edition with translator's notes and annotations to reduce misreading.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable as an introduction to Nordic literature?

It can serve as supplementary reading, but it is not the easiest starting point. Bang's strokes are delicate and subtle and require some patience with literary reading. It will go more smoothly if you first read a few classic Nordic short stories to build a feel for the language, then approach this book.

Does the title The Widow's Son suggest the main thread of the whole book?

The title hints at family relationships as a core thread, but one should not infer specific plot from it. Bang's works often succeed through character situations and emotional atmosphere; read with an open mind and pay attention to how the narrative unfolds human relationships layer by layer.

How difficult is the original Danish?

It is late nineteenth-century literary language with period features in syntax, posing a certain challenge for intermediate and advanced learners. It is advisable to use a dictionary and bilingual materials, first grasping the general meaning of paragraphs and then dealing with detailed expression.

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About the author

Bang, Herman, 1857-1912 Author

Herman Bang (1857–1912) was a Danish writer, with thirteen of his works held in this collection. Public information about him is limited, so biographical details should not be added without confirmation. Judging from his representative works, his writing often draws on the everyday lives and inner worlds of ordinary people. The novels Haabløse Slægter and Ved Vejen are commonly regarded as important works: the former concerns the confusion and sense of loss of the younger generation, while the latter depicts the emotional entanglements of provincial characters in a restrained manner. The short-story collection Excentriske Noveller shows his interest in personality and psychological detail. His narrative style tends toward delicate realism, revealing loneliness, repression, and a sense of fate within everyday scenes, and it has had some influence on the tradition of psychological portrayal in modern Nordic literature.