Novel
Adam Homo
Frederik Paludan-Müller · 1848
Opening lines
Paa Jyllands Kyst, ei langt fra Byen Veile,
(Der for det jydske Paradiis har Ord)
Paa Bredden af den smukke Veilefjord,
Hvori sig stadig Kystens Bakker speile,
On Jutland's coast, not far from the town of Vejle,
(Which has the name of Jutland's paradise)
On the shore of the lovely Vejle Fjord,
In which the coastal hills are always mirrored,
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from tekster.kb.dk
Synopsis
Adam Homo, whom his mother has mollycoddled, grows up, studies, lets himself be seduced by Lotte, then meets at a ball Alma Stjerne, an upright and pious young woman, to whom he becomes engaged on leaving his examinations. On his return from a journey to his family, the tone of the narrative changes: at every choice, Adam takes the side of ambition and accommodation, makes a career, piles up titles and fails all those who counted on him. Around him, it is the whole Danish society of his time that the novel passes in review.
Context
The first part appears on 6 December 1841, dated 1842, and leaves readers perplexed as to what kind of narrative is beginning. The author takes up the thread again at the beginning of 1845, at the rate of three stanzas a day read in the evening to his wife, from whom he drew the features of Alma. The other two parts, delayed by the events of 1848, come out on 14 December 1848, dated 1849; an afterword of February 1849 explains the delay. Four revised editions would follow in the author's lifetime. The novel is written in ottava rima, the stanza of Byron's Don Juan, and its hero has been seen as one of the models for Ibsen's Peer Gynt.
Who it is for
A novel in verse, in octaves, in three parts. English translation by Stephen I. Klass, 1981; none in French. The hero's name simply means the man.
Prizes and reception
Received coolly in 1842, then counted among the major works of Danish letters; Georg Brandes saw in it the most virile work in the language.
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