BRANDES, GEORG :MORRIS COHEN 1842—). The first of Danish critics by genius, and one of the great systematic critics of literature in modern times, worthy to rank with the French men Sainte-Bence, Taine, and Brunetiere. Even his books of travel are books of criticism, but it is with the wide currents of Euroiwan thought that he concerns himself, rather than with any national achievements or with questions of for mal restheties and technique. So his work, at a time of national segregation and bitterness, has been to preserve for the Danes a cosmopolitan intellectual horizon and a of higher interests with the neighbors and kin from whose politician, Denmark has suffered. Ile was boni. in Copenhagen, of .newish parents, studied at the university there, traveled for several years, taught at the University of Copenhagen (1872 77), lived for five years in Berlin (1877-82), and has since resided, as a public lecturer with a subscribed guarantee of $1000 a year, in Copen hagen. He wrote: _Esthetic Studies (1S68) ; French .Esthetics (1869) ; Criticisms and Por traits (1870) ; The Main Literary Currents of the Nineteenth Century (1872-82). This was fol lowed by Danish Poets (1877) ; Ferdinand Las salle (1877. written in German) ; Lord Bea consfield (1879. written in German) ; Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century (1882) ; Men -and Works in European Literature (1883) ; Ber lin as an Imperial Court (1884) : Impressions of Poland (1888) ; Impressions of Russia (ISSS) ; Essays (1890). His most recent works are Poems
(1899). and a remarkably fresh and sympathetic study of Shakespeare (1898), of which the Eng lish translation is in a second edition. Brandesis a scientific critic to whom literature is itself a `criticism of life'—a disciple of Comte and Taine, of Mill and Spencer. Naturally, therefore, lie has moved in an atmosphere of controversy which has itself tended to awaken thenationalmind.and has given to much of his work a sort of challenging boldness. His great work, the Main Currents, mentioned above, is in six volumes, and treats first of the French 'emigrant literature,' re vived by contact with England and Germany, at the hands of Chfiteaubriand. Madame de StaA, and Senancour. From this he passes to the German romantic school, thence to the French reaction, and to what he calls 'Naturalism' in England. This leads him directly to the French romanticists, and these to the so-called Young Germany of 1848, with which time work has rest ed, great though incomplete, for many years. The collected Works of Brandes are in course of publication (1900—). Many of his works have been translated into German, and some into French and English.