Good Hope. This item is unavailable.Good Hope

First published in 1964 The Good Hope won The Nordic Prize for Literature.
It is the first English translation of one of the greatest novels in the Danish language.
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The Good Hope is an epistolary novel based on the life of the Reverend Lucas Debes, a larger than life character called Peder Ba¸rresen in the novel. It tells a story of brutal oppression, poverty and terrible diseases, but also of resistance and of having the courage of one's convictions. It is a dramatic fantasy in which Heinesen's customary themes ― the struggle against evil, sectarianism, superstition and oppression ―emerge on a higher plane, set against the backcloth of the Faroe Islands in the 1690s.

The Good Hope is a masterpiece which took 40 years to write.

William Heinesen (1900-1991) was born in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, the son of a Danish mother and Faroese father, and he was equally at home in both languages. Although he spent most of his life in the Faroe Islands he chose to write in Danish as he felt it offered him greater inventive freedom. Internationally known as a poet and a novelist he made his living as an artist. His paintings range from large-scale murals in public buildings, through oil to pen sketches, caricatures and collages.

Emeritus Professor of Scandinavian Literature at the University of East Anglia he is the world's foremost authority on the novels of William Heinesen. His many translations from Danish include 4 novels by William Heinesen.