Ida Brandt

'Monsieur Bang, you are the first impressionist author in the world. Claude Monet. 'This is a masterpiece, both moving and thought-provoking. Its deliberate lightness of authorial touch, rendered superbly by translator W Glyn Jones, allows us to gaze into depths of heartache.' Paul Binding in The Independent W. Glyn Jones' masterful translation allows us to read in English for the first time one of the neglected classics of Scandinavian Literature. Ida Brandt is the classic outsider. Not acceptable to the Danish aristocratic circle she was brought up around and too moneyed for her nursing colleagues at the hospital. She is good looking and gentle, generous and kind and her trusting nature is betrayed by the people around her. Herman Bang takes us into Ida's world, he does not comment, let alone criticise and leaves the reader to judge. It is a novel ahead of its time in its impressionistic, almost cinematic style. 'Credit must go to the translator, Glyn?Jones, for the deftness of touch which he?brings to the writing, a lightness so at odds with the almost unbearable sadness?of Ida giving her all – chastity and money– to a man who only knows how to take.? The book is enhanced by the haunting?picture of an innocent young woman on?the cover. It is the literary equivalent of a? Monet painting – we feel the nuances rather than becoming immersed in?the structure. Dedalus has rediscovered a forgotten?classic. While many retrieved works are of only historical?interest, reminding us of the literary ?canon, Ida Brandt, with its enduring?themes of loneliness and expectation, and universal appeal, cries out to? be read.' Scarlett MccGwire at Tribune