Niels Lyhne
J. P. Jacobsen, 1880
A young Dane tries to live without God, without illusions, and without turning his own life into literature—and keeps failing in ways that feel embarrassingly familiar.
J. P. Jacobsen
1847–1885
Jacobsen was a botanist who translated Darwin into Danish; he wrote Niels Lyhne while dying of tuberculosis and died at thirty-eight.
Feels like melancholy, art and wonder.
The fear of people who feel too much, and the wish to burn slowly.
Involuntarily he made a gesture as if to ward it off with his hand. After all, he was afraid in his inmost heart of this mighty thing called passion. This storm-wind sweeping away everything settled and authorized and acquired in humanity as if it were dead leaves. He did not like it! This roaring flame squandering itself in its own smoke—no, he wanted to burn slowly. Books by J. P. Jacobsen
Authors with a similar feel
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
BookFeed is a feed of real passages from real books. It learns what moves you and finds your next book.
Open BookFeedFree, no sign-up.