Pontoppidan, Henrik

Pontoppidan, Henrik (hăn'rēk pôntô'pidän) [key], 1857–1943, Danish novelist. He shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature with Gjellerup. Pontoppidan devoted himself to engineering, journalism, and travel before the appearance of his first major work, The Promised Land (tr. 1896), originally published as a trilogy (1891–95). His outstanding novel, Lucky Peter (5 vol., 1898–1904), depicts, in philosophical terms, revolt against the bourgeois life in Copenhagen. In his pessimistic Kingdom of the Dead (5 vol., 1912–16) he explores the problem of human weakness.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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