DEL-Early Spring (Women in Translation Series) - Softcover

DiHeusen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0931188288 ISBN 13: 9780931188282

Publisher: Seal Press, 1993

Synopsis

„Barndommen er lang og smal som en kiste, og man kan ikke slippe ud af den ved egen hjælp. Den er der hele tiden, og alle kan se den lige så tydeligt, som man kan se Smukke-Ludvigs hareskår. Det er med ham ligesom med Smukke-Lili, der er så grim, at man ikke kan forestille sig, hun nogensinde har haft en mor. Alt hvad der er grimt eller uheldigt, kalder man smukt, og ingen ved hvorfor. Man kan ikke slippe ud af barndommen, og den hænger ved en som en lugt. Man kan mærke den hos andre børn, og hver barndom har sin egen lugt. Man kender ikke sin egen og er sommetider bange for, at den er værre end de andres. Man står og taler med en anden pige, hvis barndom lugter af aske og kul, og pludselig træder hun et skridt tilbage, for hun har mærket den frygtelige stank af ens egen barndom."


Det tidlige forår er den samlede udgave af Tove Ditlevsens to første erindringsbøger Barndom og Ungdom. Sammen med denne bogs efterfølger Gift står Tove Ditlevsens erindringsbøger som et hovedværk i dansk litteratur.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English, Danish (translation)

Review

For three years, Tove Ditlevsen, one of Denmark's favorite writers, was unable to write. Then six words appeared to her: "in the morning there was hope." These became the first words of her autobiography, Early Spring, fitting for a book that spares the reader none of the squalid details of Tove Ditlevsen's first eighteen years, yet is filled with beauty and aspirations. Tove Ditlevsen grew up in a Danish working-class neighborhood, the child of constantly arguing and often impoverished parents. There was no physical privacy, and yet her way of thinking and love of words kept her apart from her harsh and domineering mother, her father who loved her yet told her that "girls can't be poets," and her friends who were mostly interested in sex and stealing. While the details of her life can be harsh, Tove Ditlevsen portrays her neighborhood and family with well-considered love: "Down in the bottom of my childhood my father stands laughing. He's big and black and old like the stove, but there is nothing about him that I'm afraid of." Telling her story primarily through the consciousness of herself as a child and then as an adolescent, Tove Ditlevsen recreates the naive, touching egotism of her youth. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

Edition details

• Publisher: Seal Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0931188288
• ISBN 13: 9780931188282
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 227