Short stories
Strange Stories
Sære historier
Villy Sørensen · 1953
Synopsis
Nine tales, a kind of modern fable, in which the inexplicable enters ordinary lives without anyone being surprised. We see an unknown tree grow up to the sky, women give birth to children who are already adults, a children's prank turn to horror, a criminal investigation come up against doubles; in “Les Tigres”, which closes the book, tigers suddenly settle in the cellars and kitchens of peaceful citizens all over the country.
Context
The collection was published by Gyldendal in 1953; its author was twenty-four. Two other collections would follow, Ufarlige historier in 1955 and Formynderfortællinger in 1964. He has often been compared to Kafka, whom he translated, but his acknowledged masters also include Andersen, Kierkegaard and Thomas Mann. An English translation, with a preface written in New York by Angus Wilson, appeared as early as 1956-1957, under two different titles.
Who it is for
Nine stories that can be read separately, with a grave humour, two hundred and forty pages in French. Nothing to know before opening it, except that nothing in it will be explained.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by a large part of the critics as the starting point of Danish literary modernism; Jacob Paludan welcomed an author who made his mark with his very first gesture.
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