Recollections of My Childhood and Youth

Recollections of My Childhood
and Youth

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Title: Recollections Of My Childhood And Youth
Author: George Brandes
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8160] [This file was first posted on
June 23, 2003]

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Language: English
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH ***

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RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
BY
GEORGE BRANDES
AUTHOR OF "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," ETC.

[Illustration: DR. GEORGE BRANDES _From a Sketch by G. Rump_]
DISCOVERING THE WORLD
First Impressions--Going to Bed--My Name--Fresh
Elements--School--The King--Town and Country--The King's
Gardens--The Friendly World--Inimical Forces--The World
Widens--The Theatre--Progress--Warlike Instincts-- School
Adventures--Polite Accomplishments--My Relations
BOYHOOD'S YEARS
Our House--Its Inmates--My Paternal Grandfather--My Maternal
Grandfather --School and Home--Farum--My Instructors--A Foretaste
of Life--Contempt for the Masters--My Mother--The Mystery of
Life--My First Glimpse of Beauty--The Head Master--Religion--My
Standing in School--Self-esteem --An Instinct for Literature--Private
Reading--Heine's _Buch der Lieder_--A Broken Friendship

TRANSITIONAL YEARS
School Boy Fancies--Religion--Early Friends--_Daemonic Theory_--A
West Indian Friend--My Acquaintance Widens--Politics--The
Reactionary Party--The David Family--A Student Society--An
Excursion to Slesvig-- Temperament--The Law--Hegel--Spinoza--Love
for Humanity--A Religious Crisis--Doubt--Personal
Immortality--Renunciation
ADOLESCENCE
Julius Lange--A New Master--Inadaption to the Law--The University
Prize Competition--An Interview with the Judges--Meeting of
Scandinavian Students--The Paludan-Müllers--Björnstjerne
Björnson--Magdalene Thoresen--The Gold Medal--The Death of King
Frederik VII--The Political Situation--My Master of Arts
Examination--War--_Admissus cum laude praecipua_--Academical
Attention--Lecturing--Music--Nature--A Walking Tour--In
Print--Philosophical Life in Denmark--Death of Ludwig David--
Stockholm
FIRST LONG SOJOURN ABROAD
My Wish to See Paris--_Dualism in our Modern Philosophy_--A
Journey--Impressions of Paris--Lessons in French--Mademoiselle
Mathilde --Taine
EARLY MANHOOD
Feud in Danish Literature--Riding--Youthful Longings--On the
Rack--My First Living Erotic Reality--An Impression of the Miseries
of Modern Coercive Marriage--Researches on the Comic--Dramatic
Criticism--A Trip to Germany--Johanne Louise Heiberg--Magdalene
Thoresen--Rudolph Bergh-- The Sisters Spang--A Foreign
Element--The Woman Subject--Orla Lehmann-- M.
Goldschmidt--Public Opposition--A Letter from Björnstjerne
Björnson-- Hard Work
SECOND LONGER STAY ABROAD
Hamburg--My Second Fatherland--Ernest Hello--_Le Docteur Noir_--
Taine--Renan--Marcelin--Gleyre--Taine's Friendship--Renan at Home--
Philarète Chasles' Reminiscences--_Le Théâtre Français_--Coquelin
--Bernhardt--Beginnings of _Main Currents_--The Tuileries--John
Stuart Mill--London--Philosophical Studies--London and Paris
Compared-- Antonio Gallenga and His Wife--Don Juan

Prim--Napoleon III--London Theatres--Gladstone and Disraeli in
Debate--Paris on the Eve of War-- First Reverses--Flight from
Paris--Geneva, Switzerland--Italy--Pasquale Villari--Vinnie Ream's
Friendship--Roman Fever--Henrik Ibsen's Influence--Scandinavians in
Rome
FILOMENA
Italian Landladies--The Carnival--The Moccoli Feast--Filomena's
Views
SECOND LONGER STAY ABROAD Continued Reflections on the
Future of Denmark--Conversations with Giuseppe
Saredo--Frascati--Native Beauty--New Susceptibilities--Georges
Noufflard's Influence--The Sistine Chapel and Michael
Angelo--Raphael's Loggias--A Radiant Spring

RECOLLECTIONS OF
MY CHILDHOOD
AND YOUTH

DISCOVERING THE WORLD
First Impressions--Going to Bed--My Name--Fresh
Elements--School--The King--Town and Country--The King's
Gardens--The Friendly World--Inimical Forces--The World
Widens--The Theatre--Progress--Warlike Instincts-- School
Adventures--Polite Accomplishments--My Relations.
I.
He was little and looked at the world from below. All that happened,
went on over his head. Everyone looked down to him.
But the big people possessed the enviable power of lifting him to their
own height or above it. It might so happen that suddenly, without
preamble, as he lay on the floor, rummaging and playing about and
thinking of nothing at all, his father or a visitor would exclaim: "Would
you like to see the fowls of Kjöge?" And with the same he would feel
two large hands placed over his ears and the arms belonging to them
would shoot straight up into the air. That was delightful. Still, there was
some disappointment mingled with it. "Can you see Kjöge now?" was a
question he could make nothing of. What could Kjöge be? But at the

other question: "Do you see the fowls?" he vainly tried to see
something or other. By degrees he understood that it was only a phrase,
and that there was nothing to look for.
It was his first experience of empty phrases, and it made an impression.
It was