As Trains Pass By Katinka (Dedalus European Classics) - Softcover

Herman Bang

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909232920 ISBN 13: 9781909232921

Publisher: Dedalus Books, 2015

Synopsis

As Trains Pass by (Katinka)

About this title

Review:

As a literary stylist Bang was decades ahead of his time. Influenced by the then emerging realism in Germany, his objectivity was also highly subjective in that his fiction is about outsiders. He never judges, he seldom interjects; his narratives are driven by dialogue. Few writers evoke the painterly chaos of apparently inconsequential social scenes as easily. Within sentences of this novel s opening, at the railway station, he has established a sense of the small community, including the local mother most in need of marrying off her spoilt and bickering daughters. His all-too-human characters are brilliantly three-dimensional, and the dialogue is lively and convincing. In contrast to the bustle at the station is the inertia of Katinka s life. Increasingly, she simply wants to tend her flowers and to sleep. Into this tiny community of old maids, frantic widows and unhappy wives comes the new bailiff, Huus, a quiet man with his own secrets. He and Katinka begin an innocent friendship that intensifies while Bai merrily thrashes his path through life. It is exquisite. Each kind word and shared interest is treasured by Katinka. The simplicity and intensity of the story are mirrored in this translation by W Glyn Jones. Katinka s catastrophe is far more powerful than either that of Emma Bovary or that of Anna Karenina in a novel that is about far more than her wilful misfortune. Bang's gentle heroine dominates her story, although, as he cleverly suggests in the understated denouement, life can, and does, carry on. --Eileen Battersby in The Irish Times

About the Author:

Herman Bang (1857-1912) was from an aristocratic Danish family. His homosexuality led to a smear campaign against him and his exclusion from Danish literary circles. He worked as a theatre producer and as a journalist, having first tried unsuccessfully to be an actor. His first novel Families Without Hope was banned for obscenity. He specialised in novels about isolated female characters, including Ida Brandt and As Trains Pass By (Katinka).

About this edition

• Publisher: Dedalus Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1909232920
• ISBN 13: 9781909232921
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 196