Dita - bijë njeriu : 2

Ditte Menneskebarn #4-5

by Martin Andersen Nexø, Zef Simoni (Translator), Donika Omari (Redaktore)

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Roman, Danish

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Martin Andersen Nexø was born to a large family (the fourth of eleven children) in an impoverished district of Copenhagen. In 1877, his family moved to Nexø, and he adopted the name of this town as his last name. Having been an industrial worker before, Nexø he attended a folk high school and later worked as a journalist. He spent the mid-1890s travelling in Southern Europe, and his book Soldage (1903) (English: Days in the Sun) is largely based on those travels. Like many of his literary contemporaries, including Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Nexø was at first heavily influenced by fin-de-siécle pessimism, but gradually turned to a more extroverted view, joining the Social Democratic movement and later the Communist Party of Denmark; his later books reflect his political support of the Soviet Union.

Pelle Erobreren (English: Pelle the Conqueror), published in four volumes 1906-1910, is his best-known work and the one most translated. Its first section was made the subject of the DDR-FS movie Pelle der Eroberer in 1986[1] and the movie Pelle Erobreren in 1987. Ditte Menneskebarn (English: Ditte, Child of Man), written from 1917 to 1921, praises the working woman for her self-sacrifice, and a Danish film version of the first part of the book was released in 1946 as Ditte, Child of Man. The much debated Midt i en Jærntid (i.e. "In an Iron Age", English: In God's Land), written in 1929, satirises the Danish farmers of World War I. During his latter years, 1944 to 1956, Nexø wrote but did not complete a trilogy consisting of the books Morten hin Røde (English: Morten the Red), Den fortabte generation (English: The Lost Generation), and Jeanette. This was ostensibly a continuation of Pelle the Conqueror, but also a masked autobiography.

Danish police arrested Nexø in 1941 during Denmark's occupation by the Nazis, for his communist affiliation. Upon his release, he traveled to neutral Sweden and then to the Soviet Union, where he made broadcasts to Nazi-occupied Denmark and Norway. After World War II, Nexø moved to Dresden in East Germany, where he was made an honorary citizen. The Martin-Andersen-Nexø-Gymnasium high school in Dresden was named after him. His international reputation as one the greatest European social writers grew, especially, but not exclusively, in socialist countries.[citation needed]

Nexø died in Dresden in 1954 and was interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro neighbourhood of Copenhagen. A minor planet, 3535 Ditte, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979, is named after the main character in his novel Ditte, Child of Man. [2]

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not know that this was the second book in the trilogy of Ditte. Frankly, this book--apart from the HUGE cliff hanger ending--stands alone fairly well. The story, at this point in time and from the perspective of an English and French literature student, is kind of typical: a coming of age story about a young woman full of innocence with a heart of gold who gets beaten and abused and tainted by the mean ol' real world. The most striking feature of this story is her poverty and the communist undertones beating through out her tales of domestic abuse. I really appreciate how Nexo used Ditte to illustrate how women's reproductive functions and domestic role are exploited by the upper class. For example, Ditte was forced to give up her baby while she was still nursing it in order to nurse the unwanted, secret babies of aristocratic women in the city. Ditte is not recognized as a human being to the families she serves in the city; she is seen merely as an object carrying out a function.

All the men in this book SUCK, apart from Lars Peter and Mr. Vang who are gods walking the earth apparently. I loathe Karl and George and all the other men who ruined Ditte's life with their self-importance. Nexo really has created some interesting characters though. In the way of prose, this novel is not much but that may be in part due to the translation. And it's probably what Nexo saw fit to do in a somewhat utilitarian novel. It is a socialist realist book. He does not wish to obscure any meaning from the reader but aims to drive home the terrors of class inequality and capitalism. I will definitely pick up the first and third part of this trilogy (if I can find them easily; I know they are on Project Gutenberg but I do love a physical book).

[Nikolaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barsk og rørende historie om et meget anderledes København og Danmark end det, de fleste kender til i dag* - dog ikke uden sammenligning til den (absolutte) fattigdom, og dets forarmende sociale og mentale konsekvenser, mange stadig lever under i dag i forskellige dele af verden!
- *(hvilket ikke skal bagatellisere den fattige og social udsatte befolkning i dagens DK).

[Helle Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

God bog. Jeg har dog den anke, at den på for mange punkter beskriver de fuldstændig samme ting, som sidste del af Pelle Erobreren (som jeg elsker). Den henviser til Pelle og Morten, så det er et bevidst valg, men det bliver lidt for langtrukkent for mig.