Jens Peter Jacobsen

Jens Peter Jacobsen or J.P. Jacobsen (April 7th 1847 - April 30th 1885) was a writer, poet and scientist (botanist) Danish.

Born in the small town from Thisted located in the Jutland of a commercial father, he is a brilliant pupil, which enables him to attend the university of Copenhagen where he obtains a diploma in biology. He translates works of Charles Darwin into Danish, of which the origin of the species , thus helping to popularize the Théorie of the evolution in Scandinavia. He also takes part in scientific exhibitions of collection of botanical specimens in the islands of Anholt and Leæsø financed by the Danish government. However, it is the literature which is its true passion.

The literary work of Jacobsen is very restricted, but had a major influence. It has in fact initiated the realistic movement in Danish literature, and its influence extends to the literature from German language, since as much the poet Rainer Maria Rilke that the novelist Thomas Mann count among his admirors, while the type-setter Arnold Schönberg adapted in music his Gurre-Lieder (songs of Gurre). The English novelist D.H. Lawrence also took as a starting point Jacobsen.

Its first work published is the news Mogens , in 1872. It will be followed into 1876 of a historical novel, Mrs Marie Brugge , located at the 17th century. He tells the life of a real character, girl of a member of the small Danish aristocracy which marries the bastard son of the king, but who divorces it and binds with men located more and more low in the social scale in order to complete its personal and sexual release. The novel constitutes a remarkable psychological examination of a female character and was largely translated, included/understood there in French. He is greeted besides like a major stage in the development of the Scandinavian literature, amongst other things by the critic Georg Brandes, as much for his subject that for his very required and personal style. This first novel is followed into 1880 of Niels Lyhne , novel on the development of a character who ends up embracing the Athéisme and on the tribulations which it undergoes in the contemporary company. In 1882, it gathers the various news which it published in only one collection, gathering in addition to its first works the news the plague in Bergamo and Mrs Fons , they-also remained famous.

He has died of Tuberculose in his birthplace in 1885, after being weakened by the disease for several years. Its poems are published in a posthumous way the following year, including the cycle of poems which will inspire Schönberg later.

Works

Mogens (1872) new
Fru Marie Grubbe (1876) Romance ( Mrs Marie Grubbe )
Niels Lyhne (1880) Romance
Mogens og Andre noveller (1882) new ( Mogens and other news )
Digte (1886) poems; includes the Gurre-Lieder

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