Novel
Terminal Innocence
Den kroniske uskyld
Klaus Rifbjerg · 1958
Synopsis
Janus, a schoolboy in Copenhagen, tells in the slang of his age of his friendship with Tore, a brilliant and self-assured pupil whom he admires without reserve. At the school dance, Tore falls for Helle, as dazzling as himself, and the two become the school's golden couple; Janus, jealous of both, makes do with the place they leave him. Amid first parties, first drinks and the baccalaureate, Helle's mother, Mrs Junkersen, weaves a web around the couple that Janus sees closing without being able to prevent anything.
Context
It is his first novel, published in 1958 when he was twenty-seven. What struck readers was less the story than the language: the speech of schoolboys entered the novel uncorrected, and Tom Kristensen, in his review, wondered whether Danish youth was really like that. The German occupation can be glimpsed in it. The French translation by Raymond Albeck was published by Stock in 1969; Edward Fleming made a film from it in 1985.
Who it is for
Two hundred and twenty-one pages in French, in the first person, in a spoken language. A recent English translation also exists.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as his masterpiece and constantly reissued, a classic of twentieth-century Danish literature.
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