Ved Vejen
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| Author | Herman Bang |
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| Country | Denmark |
| Language | Danish |
| Publisher | Det Schubotheske Forlag |
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Publication date
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1886 |
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Ved Vejen (meaning By the Wayside or At the Roadside) is a short novel written by the Danish author Herman Bang in 1886. It was originally published in Copenhagen by Det Schubotheske Forlag as part of a collection of four stories entitled Stille Eksistenser (Quiet Existences), centering on women who are subdued or living in isolation. It was first published independently in 1898. An impressionist novel, it relates the story of Katinka, a sensitive but ambitious young woman married to a boisterous and somewhat vulgar station master, Bai.
At the time of release in Denmark in 1886, critics from the daily newspapers were generally enthusiastic about Ved Vejen. It is now considered an important contribution to Danish literature, listed in the Danish Culture Canon. In 1988 it was made into a feature film Katinka, directed by Max von Sydow.
Herman Bang's novel was inspired by an incident in 1883 when he was passing through Skørping Station in the north of Jutland. He noticed a young woman at the window who, her pale face couched in her hands, stared after his departing train. In the introduction to Stille Eksistenser he explains: "For the rest of the journey, I could see the woman's face between the flowers. Her look was not quite one of longing — longing would have perhaps fluttered to death by breaking its wings in such tight confines — just a quite resignation, a waning sorrow. And when the train had slid by, she would be peering out with the same look over Egnens Lyng — over the dreary plain."
Bang started writing the novel in 1885 in Vienna, after remembering Skørping Station: "It was in one of those windows behind the flowers that I saw her face, a face which I had not been able to erase from my memory for two years and which, as if a painter, I felt like drawing in soft, melancholic, almost blurry lines and using it as a kind of cover illustration for this book."
The novel centres on the character of Katinka Bai, a quiet, sensitive young woman married to a boisterous and somewhat vulgar station master, Bai. The marriage is barren, and she remains isolated. Almost subconsciously, she passionately longs after something undefinable. Even after the arrival of Huus, a neighbour with whom she begins to establish a promising relationship, she is unable to fulfill her passion, although for the first time in her life she falls in love. In the small provincial community where they live, neither she nor Huus dares to break the conventions they know, sad as it all may be. When they realize they cannot take their attachment any further, they decide to separate and Huus leaves the country. At the end of the novel, as at the beginning, Katinka stands by the wayside, observing life glide by.
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