It is this faculty Dr. Brandes has displayed
in an eminent degree in his many biographical and critical essays which
have appeared in German and Danish periodicals; as also in his more
elaborate biographies of Benjamin Disraeli (1878), Esaias Tegner (1878),
Soeren Kierkegaard (1877), Ferdinand Lassalle (1882), and Ludwig Holberg.
The first of these was translated into English, and was also published
in the United States. A second volume, entitled "Eminent Writers of the
Nineteenth Century," was translated some years ago by Professor R. B.
Anderson. The greater number of these highly finished essays were
selected from the Danish volumes "The Men of the New Transition" (1884)
and "Men and Works in Recent European Literature" (1883), and one or two
from "Danish Poets" (1877). They give in every instance the keynote to
the personality with which they deal; they are not so much studies of
books as studies of the men who are revealed in the books. Take, for
instance, the essay on Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson, which I regard as one of
the finest and most vital pieces of critical writing in recent times.
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