considerations and tears to pieces one’s own soul and all hol yfeelings! But
this sort of thing has an effect. It is reasonable to assume that Heiberg has
for the time being been dazzled b ythe philosophical brilliance!”
Andersen was ver ymuch in error with respect to this last point.
“A Monster of a Book”
Of course, we cannot exclude the possibilit ythat indignant ladies like Signe
Læssøe and Henriette Wulff were better informed about the literar yscene
than was J. L. Heiberg, but it is not likely. Heiberg was presumably very
well aware of the identit yof the pseudon ymous editor who concealed him-
self behind the works. On March 1, ten days after the publication ofEither/
Or, Heiberg published a critique of it, entitled “Literar yWinter Seed,” in
an issue of hisIntelligensblade. He chatted elegantl yabout books that had
been published since the beginning of the year: Christian Winther’sPoetical
Works, Hans Peter Holst’sAbroad and at Home, plus Thiele’sFolk Legends.
Then Heiberg took a deep breath: “Furthermore, a monster of a book has
just recentl ycome crashing down upon our literar yworld, like lightning
out of a cloudless sky. I am referring toEither/Orb y‘Victor Eremita,’ in
two heav yvolumes, comprising 838 closel yprinted pages. So it is primaril y
with respect to its bulk that the book ma ybe called a monster, because one
is impressed b yits sheer mass even before one becomes acquainted with
the spirit of the work, and I have no doubt that were the author willing to
place himself on exhibit for money, he would earn as much from that
displa yas he would from permitting people to read the book for mone y.
The book’s enormous size is onl ya passing inconvenience that one must
ignore. One reflects, ‘Have I the time to read a book of this sort, and what
assurance do I have that the sacrifice will be rewarded?’ One feels strangely
intrigued b ythe title itself, for one applies it to one’s own relationship to
the book and asks oneself, ‘Should Ieitherread the book,orrefrain from
doing so?’ We no longer live in the Golden Age, but as everybody knows,
in the Iron Age or, more specifically, in the Railroad Age. So, what sort
of odd anachronism is it that has induced someone to come forward with
this kind of farrago in an age where the main thing is to cover the greatest
distances in the shortest time?”
Heiberg overcame his hesitations, however, and leaped into the first part
of the work. He reports on it as follows: “Thus, first of all, one finds oneself
inEither, and at first one doesn’t feel so well because one notices that one
is not having nearl yas good a time as the author. It has an unpleasant,
unrhythmic gait, so that one continually has a sense of wanting to get ahead