Biography of 19th Century Danish Literary Impressionist Herman Bang (1857-1912)

This is the first study in English of the life and work of Herman Bang, Danish novelist and avant-courrier of European impressionism. Leading German authors and critics, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, and Robert Musil among them, attest to Bang's contribution to European prose fiction and their personal indebtedness to his narrative style. This study introduces Bang's literary style and places him in the social context of European cultural history. The first part identifies major motifs in his political, literary, and sexual legacies. It interweaves original research based on Bang's heretofore unpublished correspondence with authors, publishers, agents, and translators, and includes critical comments about Bang's reception from newspapers and journals which circulated during his lifetime. By special permission from Edition Spangenberg, an hitherto unpublished excerpt of Klaus Mann's account of Herman Bang's visit to America appears in the original English.