The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dangerous Age, by Karin Michaelis

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Title: The Dangerous Age

Author: Karin Michaelis

Release Date: November 28, 2004 [EBook #14187]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DANGEROUS AGE ***

Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Audrey Longhurst, Melissa Er-Raqabi
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_THE DANGEROUS AGE_

_LETTERS AND FRAGMENTS FROM A WOMAN'S DIARY_

_TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH OF KARIN MICHAELIS_

_NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMXI_

TO

MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW

BARON YOOST DAHLERUP

_INTRODUCTION TO THE FRENCH EDITION By MARCEL PREVOST_

Here is a strange book. A novel from the North, its solid structure, its
clear, unadorned form are purely Latin. A woman's novel, in its integral
and violent sincerity it can only be compared to certain famous
masculine confessions.

The author, Karin Michaelis, a Dane, is not at all known in France. _The
Dangerous Age_ is not her first book; but it is, I feel sure, the first
that has been translated into French. Naturally enough the
Danish-Scandinavian literature is transmitted in the first instance
through newspapers and reviews, and through German publishers. This is
the result of local proximity and the affinity of language. Several
novels by Karin Michaelis were known to the German public before _The
Dangerous Age_; but none of them had awakened the same keen curiosity,
provoked such discussion, or won such success as this book. In all the
countries of Central Europe the most widely read novel at the present
moment is _The Dangerous Age_. Edition succeeds edition, and the fortune
of the book has been increased by the quarrels it has provoked; for it
has been much discussed and criticised, not on account of its literary
value, which is incontestable, but because of the idea which animates
it.

Shall I confess that it was just this great success, and the polemical
renown of the novel, that roused my suspicions when first I chanced to
see the German version of it? Contrary to the reputation which our
neighbours on the other side of the Vos