The incidents of the hero's boyhood in the old porcelain factory, and
his uncle's agitating experiments for the rediscovery of a lost process
of glazing are saner and soberer and lie closer to the soil of common
experience than the exploits of monks and pirates and revolutionists.
Among the notable men of the expiring Danish romanticism Meyer Aaron
Goldschmidt (1819-1886) holds a leading position. A comic paper,
_Corsaren_, which he edited (1840-1846) made a tremendous stir in its
day; and its scathing wit and satire were not without influence upon
current events. His two novels, _En Joede_ (1845), _Hjemloes_ (1857), and
a large number of clever novelettes (_Ravnen_, _Arvingen Flyveposten_,
etc.), are full of psychological subtleties, and often charmingly told.
_Flyveposten_ ("The Flying Mail") was translated into English (Boston
and Cambridge, 1870) but attracted no particular attention. For all
that, Goldschmidt, in spite of occasional prolixity, stands the test of
time remarkably well. His Jewish stories, notably _Maser, Aron og
Esther_, and _En Joede_, contain a higher order of work, though less
dramatically effective, than that of Sacher-Masoch, and Emil Franzos,
and the later Ghetto romancers.
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