Brandes

Brandes, GEORGE, a Danish literary critic of Jewish family, born 4th February 1842, in Copenhagen, where he graduated at the university in 1864. Several books on æsthetic and philosophic subjects brought on him a charge of scepticism, which was not removed by an epoch-making series of lectures, delivered before large audiences, and published under the title, The Great Tendencies of Nineteenth-century Literature (1872-75); for his description of the later intellectual position of Europe, as broken away from the orthodoxy and romanticism of the beginning of the century, brought on him the bitter attacks of all the reactionary forces in Denmark. His Danske Digter, a masterpiece of psychological analysis, appeared in 1877; but the hostility of his enemies induced him in the same year to leave Denmark, and settle in Berlin, where he published, among other works, critical biographies of Lassalle (1877), Esaias Tegnér (1878), and Lord Beaconsfield (1879). A lecture tour through Norway and Denmark brought a powerful party to his side, and in 1882 he returned to Copenhagen. Later works include Den Romantiske Skole i Frankrig (1882) and a Life of Holberg (1885). His three books on Ibsen (1867, 1882, and 1898) were translated into English and published together. Shakespeare: a Critical Study, appeared in 1898.