Novel
The Promised Land
Det forjættede land
Henrik Pontoppidan · 1895
Opening lines
Der havde i flere Dage raset et Herrens Vejr over Egnen. Paa forrevne, sorteblaa Sky-Vinger var Stormen kommen flyvende fra Øst og havde gennempisket Fjorden, saa store Skumflager var kastet højt op paa Markerne.
For several days a fearful storm had raged over the district. On ragged, blue-black wings of cloud the gale had come flying from the east and lashed the fjord, so that great flakes of foam had been flung high up on the fields.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
Emanuel Hansted, son of a well-off Copenhagen family, has taken a country parish and wants to live with the peasants he serves. He has married a young peasant woman, Hansine, farms the glebe himself and refuses any payment from his parishioners. The years pass: three children are born, the fields yield only debts, his convictions collide with the realities of the country, and he feels drawn to Ragnhild, the daughter of a clergyman, who comes from the same world as he does.
Context
The three volumes appeared from P. G. Philipsen: the first in 1891, the one that gives the whole its title in 1892, the last in November 1895, without having been announced; the author called them three linked narratives. He merged them in 1898 in a revised edition under the title of the central volume, revised again in 1918. The first two volumes were translated into English as early as 1896 by Mrs. Edgar Lucas. The story is set in Grundtvigian circles and the folk high school milieu, which the author had known closely.
Who it is for
A long novel, nearly six hundred pages in the collected edition, in three parts to be read in sequence. No French translation.
Prizes and reception
First of its author's three great novel cycles, and most often regarded as his masterwork.
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