Description:
"This travel book is truly a labyrinth--or, more precisely, a piece of the labyrinth that it has been my fate to wander, from the cradle to the grave."
Jens Baggesen's The Labyrinth (1792-93) is a genre-bending and highly personal travel book that follows the young Danish author's journey, made in 1789, from Copenhagen through Germany to the Swiss border at Basel. In its outer form, it follows the conventions of travel writing: describing the cities, landscapes, and notable people encountered on the route, while also offering critical commentary on art, architecture, theater, and literature, mixed with reactions to the unfolding French Revolution. However, Baggesen finds contemporary travel writing to be pedantic and dry and is determined to make his own account as engaging and personal as possible. Based on the principle that "nothing is more necessary in a volume of travels than a traveller", the narrative eschews a focus on prescribed sights and instead foregrounds his individual responses to the places and people he encounters. Brought to life in a new English translation by Jesper Gulddal, The Labyrinth offers a rare glimpse into the mind of an endlessly thinking, feeling, and imagining traveler at a pivotal moment in European history.
Brief description: Jens Baggesen (1764-1826) was born into a poor family in Korsor, a small town west of Copenhagen. Noticed early for his handwriting and academic ability and supported to attend grammar school, he enrolled as a theology student at the University of Copenhagen in 1782, but soon switched his focus to literary pursuits. His first poems appeared in 1783 and were followed in 1785 by a highly successful first book, Comiske Fortaellinger ("Comic Tales"), which established Baggesen as a prominent author of his generation. In 1789, the opera Holger Danske (Ogier the Dane), for which he had written the libretto, was caught up in the culture wars between Copenhagen's Danish and German factions, and a vicious feud compelled him to go abroad, first with the aim of recuperating at the mineral baths in Pyrmont, but ultimately leading to extensive travels in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Baggesen's account of his travels, The Labyrinth (1792-3), marked a breakthrough of a new individualism in Danish literature, inspiring generations of later writers. Returning to Denmark in late 1790, Baggesen was accompanied by his young Swiss wife, Sophie, whom he had married near Bern earlier in the year. Although initially intending to establish a life for his young family in the Danish capital, the subsequent decades were mostly spent abroad, either traveling or living as an independent author in Paris. Baggesen would write prolifically in Danish, German, and French for the rest of his life, excelling particularly in versified epistles and narratives. However, The Labyrinth is his lasting legacy as an author and has been described as the most original Danish prose work of the eighteenth century. Baggesen died in Hamburg in 1826 while traveling back to Denmark.