Bang was born in Seeland in 1858. During his sojourn among foreigners he has been at various times journalist, author, playwright, until he now stands first among Danish writers of the modern realistic school, for Drachmann can not be accounted to any school for any length of time.
Outside of his critical writings his works form a series of naturalistic romances and novels, showing a deep knowledge of the sad side of life, all the way from his first novel, called “Hopeless Struggle,” published in 1880, to “Alive or Dead,” published in 1900, including the very remarkable play, “Ellen Urne,” and his short stories. “Irene Holm” is as inconclusive as life itself, and that is what it is intended to be; that is the author’s conception of art when dealing with life.
IRENE HOLM
BY HERMANN BANG
Translated by Grace Isabel Colbron. Copyright, 1907, by P. F. Collier & Son.
I
One Sunday morning, after service, the bailiff’s son announced to the gathering at the meeting-stone outside the church that Miss Irene Holm, dancer from the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, would open a course for dancing and deportment, for children, ladies, and gentlemen, if a sufficient number of subscribers could be found. The lessons would begin the first of November, in the inn, and the price would be five crowns for each child, with a discount for several in the same family.
Seven names were signed. Jens Larsens put up his three on the discount.