He was a very productive journalist, writing for Danish, Nordic and German newspapers, developing modern reporting. Uninterested in politics, he was distant from most of his colleagues in the naturalist movement.įailed as an actor, Bang earned fame as a theatre producer in Paris and in Copenhagen.

He lived most of his life with his sister, but spent a few years living in Prague in 1885–86, with the German actor Max Eisfeld (1863–1935). īang was homosexual, a fact which contributed to his isolation in the cultural life of Denmark and made him the victim of smear campaigns. Among his other works are Det hvide Hus ( The White House, 1898), Excentriske Noveller ( Eccentric Stories, 1885), Stille Eksistenser ( Quiet Existences, 1886), Liv og Død ( Life and Death, 1899), Englen Michael ( The Angel Michael, 1902), a volume of poems (1889), and recollections, Ti Aar ( Ten Years, 1891). The latter won for its author the friendship of Henrik Ibsen and the enthusiastic admiration of Jonas Lie. Among his more famous stories are 'Fædra' (1883) and 'Tine' ('Tina', 1889). After some time spent in travel and a successful lecture tour of Norway and Sweden, he settled in Copenhagen and produced a series of novels and collections of short stories which placed him in the front rank of Scandinavian novelists. The book was considered obscene at the time and was banned. The main character was a young man who had a relationship with an older woman. In 1880 he published his novel Haabløse Slægter ( Families Without Hope), which aroused immediate attention. When he was twenty he published two volumes of critical essays on the realistic movement.

Ved Vejen by Herman Bang