
Pelle the Conqueror, Volume 1
'Pelle the Conqueror, Volume 1 ' Summary
When the first part of "Pelle Erobreren" (Pelle the Conqueror) appeared in 1906, its author, Martin Andersen Nexo, was practically unknown even in his native country, save to a few literary people who knew that he had written some volumes of stories and a book full of sunshiny reminiscences from Spain. And even now, after his great success with "Pelle," very little is known about the writer. He was born in 1869 in one of the poorest quarters of Copenhagen, but spent his boyhood in his beloved island Bornholm, in the Baltic, in or near the town, Nexo, from which his final name is derived. There, too, he was a shoemaker's apprentice, like Pelle in the second part of the book, which resembles many great novels in being largely autobiographical. Later, he gained his livelihood as a bricklayer, until he somehow managed to get to one of the most renowned of our "people's high-schools," where he studied so effectually that he was enabled to become a teacher, first at a provincial school, and later in Copenhagen.
"Pelle" consists of four parts, each, except perhaps the last, a complete story in itself. First we have the open-air life of the boy in country surroundings in Bornholm; then the lad's apprenticeship in a small provincial town not yet invaded by modern industrialism and still innocent of socialism; next the youth's struggles in Copenhagen against employers and authorities; and last the man's final victory in laying the foundation of a garden-city for the benefit of his fellow-workers. The background everywhere is the rapid growth of the labor movement; but social problems are never obtruded, except, again, in the last part, and the purely human interest is always kept well before the reader's eye through variety of situation and vividness of characterization. The great charm of the book seems to me to lie in the fact that the writer knows the poor from within; he has not studied them as an outsider may, but has lived with them and felt with them, at once a participant and a keen-eyed spectator. He is no sentimentalist, and so rich is his imagination that he passes on rapidly from one scene to the next, sketching often in a few pages what another novelist would be content to work out into long chapters or whole volumes. His sympathy is of the widest, and he makes us see tragedies behind the little comedies, and comedies behind the little tragedies, of the seemingly sordid lives of the working people whom he loves. "Pelle" has conquered the hearts of the reading public of Denmark; there is that in the book which should conquer also the hearts of a wider public than that of the little country in which its author was born.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
DanishPublished In
1906Genre/Category
Tags/Keywords
Authors

Martin Andersen Nexo
Europe
Martin Andersen Nexø was a Danish author. He was one of the authors in the Modern Breakthrough movement in Danish art and literature. He was a socialist throughout his life and during the secon...
Books by Martin Andersen NexoDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright
A novel without the letter E? It sounds impossible, but Ernest Vincent Wright did it with Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel that does not contain a single i...

Dream of the Red Chamber Book II by Xueqin Cao
The Dream of the Red Chamber, also known as The Story of the Stone, is a monumental Chinese novel that follows the rise and fall of the wealthy Chia f...

The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories by Paul Laurence Dunbar
In the vibrant tapestry of African American literature, Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories" stands as a testament to the...

Lover or Friend by Rosa Nouchette Carey
It follows the story of two sisters, one of whom must choose between a romantic relationship with a wealthy suitor and her deep friendship with a devo...

storie del castello di Trezza by Giovanni Verga
Set in the crumbling Trezza Castle, this book tells the intertwining stories of Matilde, her husband Giordano, Luciano, and the mysterious Olani. Amid...

The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany
It is a captivating novel that tells the story of a young boy named Joseph who is fascinated by the shadows of the people around him. One day, he meet...

The Life, Adventures & Piracies of Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe
The Life, Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton is a novel by Daniel Defoe, originally published in 1720. It has been re-published m...

The Roll-Call by Arnold Bennett
"The Roll-Call" is the sequel to the Clayhanger trilogy. This book concerns the young life of Clayhanger's stepson, George. George Edwin Cannon (he qu...

Daisy Miller: A Study in Two Parts by Henry James
Daisy Miller is an 1878 novella by Henry James. It portrays the confused courtship of the eponymous American girl by Winterbourne, a compatriot of her...

Idylls Of The Sea And Other Marine Sketches by Frank Thomas Bullen
In these little sketches [1899] of a few out of the innumerable multitude of ways in which the sea has spoken to me during my long acquaintance with i...
Reviews for Pelle the Conqueror, Volume 1
No reviews posted or approved, yet...