Georg Morris Cohen Brandes

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes (1842-1927), Danish critic and biographer, who is regarded as one of the great systematic literary critics of modern times. He was born in Copenhagen and educated in law and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. He adopted a broad, cosmopolitan view of literary history previously unknown in Scandinavia. After traveling widely in Europe, he returned in 1871 to lecture at the University of Copenhagen. Denied the professorship of aesthetics by university authorities because of his Jewish parentage, his outspoken atheism, and his generally radical views, Brandes went to Berlin in 1877 and lived there for five years, writing and lecturing. When he returned to Denmark, a group of admirers guaranteed him a yearly stipend as a private professor. His fame grew among scholars at home and abroad. When the Liberals gained power in 1892, the ministry gave Brandes a substantial pension, and in 1902 he was finally elected professor of aesthetics. Brandes's literary output consisted of 33 volumes of history, biography, and criticism.