Recollections of My Childhood and Youth

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes

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• Publié par: entoe
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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Childhood And Youth, by
George Brandes
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Title: Recollections Of My Childhood And Youth
Author: George Brandes
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MY
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
BY
GEORGE BRANDES
AUTHOR OF "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE," ETC.
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: "Wouldyou 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 just as great fun, though, when the big people said to him:
"Would you like to be a fat lamb? Let us play at fat lamb." He would
be flung over the man's shoulder, like a slaughtered lamb, and hang
there, or jump up and ride with his legs round the man's hips, then
climb valiantly several steps higher, get his legs round his shoulders,
and behold! be up on the giddy height! Then the man would take him
round the waist, swing him over, and after a mighty somersault in the
air, he would land unscathed on his feet upon the floor. It was a
composite kind of treat, of three successive stages: first came the lofty
and comfortable seat, then the more interesting moment, with a
feeling, nevertheless, of being on the verge of a fall, and then finally
the jump, during which everything was upside down to him.
But, too, he could take up attitudes down on the floor that added to his
importance, as it were, and obliged the grown-up people to look at
him. When they said: "Can you stand like the Emperor Napoleon?"
he would draw himself up, bring one foot a little forward, and cross
his arms like the little figure on the bureau.
He knew well enough just how he had to look, for when his stout,
broad- shouldered Swedish uncle, with the big beard and large
hands, having asked his parents about the little fellow's
accomplishments, placed himself in position with his arms crossed
and asked: "Who am I like?" he replied: "You are like Napoleon's
lackey." To his surprise, but no small delight, this reply elicited a loud
exclamation of pleasure from his mother, usually so superior and so
strict, and was rewarded by her, who seldom caressed, with a kiss.
II.
The trying moment of the day was when he had to go to bed. His
parents were extraordinarily prejudiced about bedtime, just when he
was enjoying himself most. When visitors had arrived and
conversation was well started--none the less interesting to him
because he understood scarcely half of what was said--it was: "Now,
to bed!"
But there were happy moments after he was in bed, too. When
Mother came in and said prayers with him, and he lay there safely
fenced in by the tall trellis-work, each bar of which, with its little
outward bend in the middle, his fingers knew so well, it was
impossible to fall out through them. It was very pleasant, the little bed
with its railing, and he slept in it as he has never slept since.
It was nice, too, to lie on his back in bed and watch his parents
getting ready to go to the theatre, Father in a shining white shirt and
with his curly hair beautifully parted on one side Mother with a crêpe
shawl over her silk dress, and light gloves that smelled inviting as
she came up to say goodnight and good-bye.
III.I was always hearing that I was pale and thin and small. That was the
impression I made on everyone. Nearly thirty years afterwards an
observant person remarked to me: "The peculiarity about your face is
its intense paleness." Consequently I looked darker than I was; my
brown hair was called black.
Pale and thin