Tove Ditlevsen

Called "a masterpiece" by The Guardian, this courageous and honest trilogy from Tove Ditlevsen, a pioneer in the field of genre-bending confessional writing, explores themes of family, sex, motherhood, abortion, addiction, and being an artist. This single-volume hardcover contains all three volumes of her memoirs Tove Ditlevsen is today celebrated as one of the most important and unique voices in twentieth-century Danish literature, and The Copenhagen Trilogy (1969–71) is her acknowledged masterpiece. Childhood tells the story of a misfit child’s single-minded determination to become a poet; Youth describes her early experiences of sex, work, and independence. Dependency picks up the story as the narrator embarks on the first of her four marriages and goes on to describe her horrible descent into drug addiction, enabled by her sinister, gaslighting doctor-husband. Throughout, the narrator grapples with the tension between her vocation as a writer and her competing roles as daughter, wife, mother, and drug addict, and she writes about female experience and identity in a way that feels very fresh and pertinent to today’s discussions around feminism. Ditlevsen’s trilogy is remarkable for its intensity and its immersive depiction of a world of complex female friendships, family and growing up—in this sense, it’s Copenhagen's answer to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. She can also be seen as a spiritual forerunner of confessional writers like Karl Ove Knausgaard, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy. Her trilogy is drawn from her own experiences but reads like the most compelling kind of fiction. Born in a working-class neighborhood in Copenhagen in 1917, Ditlevsen became famous for her poetry while still a teenager, and went on to write novels, stories and memoirs before committing suicide in 1976. Having been dismissed by the critical establishment in her lifetime as a working-class, female writer, she is now being rediscovered and championed as one of Denmark's most important modern authors, with "Tove fever" gripping readers.

Childhood; Youth; Dependency

The Copenhagen Trilogy

The first volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, the searing portrait of a woman's journey through love, friendship, ambition and addiction, from one of Denmark's most celebrated twentieth-century writers Tove knows she is a misfit, whose childhood is made for a completely different girl. In her working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, she is enthralled by her wild, red-headed friend Ruth, who initiates her into adult secrets. But Tove cannot reveal her true self to her or to anyone else. For 'long, mysterious words begin to crawl across my soul', and she comes to realize that she has a vocation, something unknowable within her - and that she must one day, painfully but inevitably, leave the narrow street of her childhood behind. Childhood, the first volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, is a visceral portrait of girlhood and female friendship, told with lyricism and vivid intensity.

Childhood

Growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Tove feels that her childhood is made for a completely different girl. As 'long, mysterious words begin to crawl across my soul', she comes to understand that she has a vocation that will define her life. Her path seems assured, but she has no idea of the struggles ahead - love affairs, wanted and unwanted pregnancies, artistic failure and destructive addiction. As the years go by, the central tension of Tove's life comes into painful focus- the terrible lure of dependency, in all its forms, and the possibility of living freely and fearlessly - as an artist on her own terms.

Childhood, Youth, Dependency

The second volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, the searing portrait of a woman's journey through love, friendship, ambition and addiction, from one of Denmark's most celebrated twentieth-century writers Forced to leave school early, Tove embarks on a chequered career in a string of low-paid, menial jobs. But she is hungry: for poetry, for love, for real life to begin. As Europe slides into war, she must navigate exploitative bosses, a Nazi landlady and unwelcome sexual encounters on the road to hard-won independence. Yet she remains ruthlessly determined in the pursuit of her poetic vocation - until at last the miracle she has always dreamed of appears to be within reach. Youth, the second volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, is a strikingly honest and immersive portrait of adolescence, filled with biting humour, vulnerability and poeticism.

Youth

'Utterly, agonisingly compulsive ... a masterpiece' Liz Jensen, Guardian The final volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, the searing portrait of a woman's journey through love, friendship, ambition and addiction, from one of Denmark's most celebrated twentieth-century writers Tove is only twenty, but she's already famous, a published poet and wife of a much older literary editor. Her path in life seems set, yet she has no idea of the struggles ahead - love affairs, wanted and unwanted pregnancies, artistic failure and destructive addiction. As the years go by, the central tension of Tove's life comes into painful focus: the terrible lure of dependency, in all its forms, and the possibility of living freely and fearlessly - as an artist on her own terms. The final volume in The Copenhagen Trilogy, and arguably Ditlevsen's masterpiece, Dependency is a dark and blisteringly honest account of addiction, and the way out.

Dependency

The Trouble with Happiness is a short-story collection from Tove Ditlevsen, the acclaimed author of the Copenhagen Trilogy, never before translated in English A newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife’s beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these precisely observed tales of marriage and family life in mid-century Copenhagen pulse currents of desire, violence, and despair, as women and men struggle to escape from the roles assigned to them and dream of becoming free and happy—without ever truly understanding what that might mean. Tove Ditlevsen is one of Denmark’s most famous and beloved writers, and her autobiographical Copenhagen Trilogy was hailed as a masterpiece on re-publication in English, lauded for its wry humor, limpid prose, and powerful honesty. The poignant and understated stories in The Trouble with Happiness, written in the 1950s and 1960s and never before translated into English, offer readers a new chance to encounter the quietly devastating work of this essential twentieth-century writer.

And Other Stories

The Trouble with Happiness

Copenhagen, 1968. Lise, a children's book writer and married mother of three, is becoming increasingly haunted by disembodied faces and taunting voices. Convinced that her housekeeper and husband are plotting against her, she descends into a terrifying world of sickness, pills and institutionalization. But is sanity in fact a kind of sickness? And might mental illness itself lead to enlightenment? Brief, intense and haunting, Ditlevsen's novel recreates the experience of madness from the inside, with all the vividness of lived experience.

The Faces

Teil 1 der Kopenhagen-Trilogie

Kindheit

Gift

„Ein Mädchen kann nicht Dichterin“ werden, hatte der Vater zu ihr gesagt. In „Jugend“ zeichnet Tove Ditlevsen das Porträt einer jungen Frau im Kopenhagen der 1930er, die ihren eigenen Weg geht – kraftvoll, wild, lebendig erzählt. „Eine Stimme, deren Kraft wie Dynamit ist.” The Times Literary Supplement. „Das Porträt einer Frau, die ihr Leben entschieden zu ihrem eigenen macht. Ein Leben, so frei und ungestüm, ich bin versunken in Tove Ditlevsens Büchern.“ Nina Hoss. „Eine monumentale Autorin.“ Patti Smith.

Teil 2 der Kopenhagen-Trilogie

Jugend

Roman

Gesichter

Teil 3 der Kopenhagen-Trilogie

Abhängigkeit

Çocukluk

Forfatteren Tove Ditlevsen ville være fyldt 100 år den 14. december 2017. I den anledning udgiver Gyldendal de bedste af hendes digte i et udvalg ved Olga Ravn, der også har skrevet bogens efterord. Samlingen indeholder digte fra hele forfatterskabet – såvel de kendte klassikere som de mindre kendte tekster, f.eks. hendes arbejderdigte. Tove Ditlevsen debuterede som forfatter i 1939 med digtsamlingen Pigesind og skrev siden en lang række romaner, noveller, digte og erindringer. Hun døde i 1976, 58 år gammel.

Der bor en ung pige i mig, som ikke vil dø

While Tove Ditlevsen is now famous around the world as an extraordinary prose writer, in Denmark she has also long been celebrated as a poet. She published her first collection in her early twenties, and continued writing and publishing poetry until the end of her life. This new selection offers English readers a chance to explore her brilliant, surprising verse across nearly four decades of writing.

In this playful, mournful, witty collection, little girls stand tip-toe inside adult bodies, achievements in literature and lethargy are unflinchingly listed, and lovers come and go like the seasons. Gorgeously translated by Jennifer Russell and Sophia Hersi Smith, with an afterword by Olga Ravn, There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die cements Ditlevsen as one of the twentieth century's most creative writers.

There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die

Kopenhag Üclemesi 2

Genclik

Barndommens gade

Considerada «uma obra-prima» pelo The Guardian, A Trilogia de Copenhaga reúne num único volume Infância, Juventude e Relações Tóxicas, os três livros fundamentais de Tove Ditlevsen, aclamada como uma das vozes mais importantes e singulares da literatura dinamarquesa do século XX. Uma obra corajosa e honesta que representa um exercício pioneiro no campo da escrita confessional, explorando temas como a família, o sexo, a maternidade, a toxicodependência e as dificuldades da mulher para ser artista. Durante a sua vida, Ditlevsen teve de lidar com a tensão entre a sua vocação de escritora e os seus papéis de filha, esposa e mãe, bem como a sua condição de viciada, o que a levou a escrever sobre a experiência e a identidade feminina de uma maneira muito à frente do seu tempo e ainda pertinente para as discussões atuais em torno do feminismo. Embora baseada nas experiências da autora, A Trilogia de Copenhaga lê-se como a ficção mais empolgante, sendo notável pela sua intensidade e descrição imersiva de um mundo de complexas amizades femininas, relações familiares e literatura – nesse sentido, é a resposta de Copenhaga aos romances napolitanos de Elena Ferrante. Por outro lado, Ditlevsen pode também ser vista como uma precursora espiritual de escritores confessionais como Karl Ove Knausgård, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk e Deborah Levy.

Tove Ditlevsen

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