author
Georg Brandes
1842–1927
A sharp-eyed Danish critic who helped push Scandinavian literature into the modern age, he became famous for urging writers to put real life and real social problems at the center of their work.
14 Audiobooks
Friedrich Nietzsche
by Georg Brandes
Recollections of My Childhood and Youth
by Georg Brandes
Voltaire
by Georg Brandes
Anatole France
by Georg Brandes
Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 6. Young Germany
by Georg Brandes
William Shakespeare: A Critical Study
by Georg Brandes
Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century: Literary Portraits
by Georg Brandes
About the author
Born in Copenhagen in 1842, Georg Brandes studied at the University of Copenhagen and went on to become one of the most influential literary critics in Scandinavia. His lectures and essays challenged the romantic ideals that had dominated earlier literature and argued that great writing should engage with society, politics, and modern thought.
Brandes is closely linked with what became known as the "Modern Breakthrough," a movement that encouraged realism and naturalism in Nordic writing. He wrote widely on major European authors and thinkers, and his criticism helped introduce new intellectual currents to Danish and Scandinavian readers.
Over a long career, he became an important public voice well beyond Denmark, admired for his energy, independence, and wide reading. He died in Copenhagen in 1927, leaving behind a body of criticism that shaped literary debate across Europe.