Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Brandes, George Maurice Cohen
BRANDES, George Maurice Cohen, a Danish author, born at Copenhagen, of a Jewish family, Feb. 4, 1842. He studied in the University of his native city (1859–64), applying himself in the first instance to jurisprudence, and then to philosophy and aesthetics. In 1862 he gained the gold medal of the University by an essay on "Fatalism among the Ancients," and afterwards he passed the examination for his degree with the highest distinction. As soon as he had graduated he left Denmark and spent several years in different countries on the Continent. He was at Stockholm in 1865; passed the winter of 1866–67 at Paris; was in Germany in 1868; and in France and Germany in 1870–71. He published "Dualismeni von nyeste Filosofi" ("The Dualism of the Philosophy of the Present Time") in 1866, with reference to the relations between science and faith—a work which exposed him to violent attacks from the orthodox party; "Æsthetic Studies," 1868; "Criticisms and Portraits," 1870; and "French Æsthetics at the Present Day," 1870. On returning from his travels he became a private tutor in the University of Copenhagen, and delivered the series of lectures which were published at Copenhagen in 4 vols., 1872–75, under the title of "Hovedströmninger i det 19 Aarhundredes Literatur" ("The Great Literary Currents of the Nineteenth Century"), and subsequently translated into German by Strodtmann. His other works are a Danish translation of John Stuart Mill's essay on the "Subjection of Women," 1869; "Sören Kjerkegaard," 1877, and "Danske Digtere" (Danish Poems), 1877. In Oct., 1877, Brandes left Denmark and settled in Berlin, where he diligently studied and made himself master of the German language, which he now writes fluently and correctly. At Berlin he composed the biographies "Esajas Tegnér" and "Benjamin d'Israeli," both published in 1878. At the close of the year 1882 he returned to Denmark, his fellow-countrymen having guaranteed him an income of 4, 000 crowns for ten years, with the single stipulation that he should deliver public lectures on literature at Copenhagen.