Louise Bjørnsen - Ludvig Grundtvig - Det Kongelige Bibliotek - Id DP002818

Louise Cathrine Elisabeth Bjørnsen, pen name Elisabeth Martens, (1824–1899) was successful as an early Danish female novelist and short story writer. Following in the footsteps of

Mathilde Fibiger Mathilde Fibiger (13 December 1830 – 17 June 1872) was a Danish feminist, novelist, and telegraphist. Biography Mathilde Fibiger was born in Copenhagen in 1830. Her father, Captain Johan Adolph Fibiger, was an army officer; her mother was ...

, she published her first novel ''Hvad er Livet?'' (What is Life?) in 1855, based on her own experiences as a governess. She went on to write five more novels and four collections of short stories.

Biography

Born on 9 April 1824 in

Roholte Roholte is a village and parish in Faxe Municipality, Region Zealand, Denmark. By road it is located south of Faxe, and southwest of Copenhagen. Of note is Roholte Church, the parish church, which was built in 1441, and the Morten Roholte sports ...

near

Faxe Faxe or Fakse is a town on the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. It is located in Faxe Municipality in Region Zealand. The town is most known for the Faxe Brewery, Royal Unibrew, a relatively large brewery producing a range of beer and soft ...

, Louise Cathrine Elisabeth Bjørnsen was the daughter of the parish priest Frederik Cornelius Eberhard Bjørnsen (1781–1831) and his wife Rebekka Adolphine née Rabe-Holm (1786–1858). After her father died when she was eight years old, she was brought up by her mother together with her eight siblings. Her mother also introduced her to romantic literature. Bjørnsen was inspired to write a novel based on her own experiences when Fibiger's ''Clara Raphael: Tolv Breve'' was published in 1851. Now living with her family in

Næstved Næstved () is a town in the municipality of the same name, located in the southern part of the island of Zealand in Denmark. Næstved has several adult education centers, five elementary schools - and has at least one of each type of the four ...

, she embarked on her novel ''Hvad er Livet?'', mainly writing secretly at night. Using the pen name Elisabeth Martens, she finally found a publisher who brought out the first edition in 1855, shortly followed by a reprint. Later publications included ''En Kvinde'' (A Woman, 1860), ''Tre Fortællinger'' (Three Short Stories, 1866), ''Hvad behøves der for at leve?'' (What is needed in order to live? Portraits, 1869), ''Sangerinden'' (The Songstress, 1876), ''Fra Fortid og Nutid, en Samling Fortællinger'' (From the Past and Present, a Collection of Short Stories, 1878) and ''Skibldner'' (1883). She also contributed to journals and magazines. In all these works, she deals with conflicts experienced by emancipated women, presenting both the traditional and the more modern options for women of her day. Her works evoke the dreams and disappointments experienced by women who have confronted life, work and romance on their own. Her ''To Søstre'' (Two Sisters, 1890) deals with the evolving

Danish Women's Society The Danish Women's Society or DWS ( da, Dansk Kvindesamfund) is Denmark's oldest women's rights organization. It was founded in 1871 by activist Matilde Bajer and her husband Fredrik Bajer; Fredrik was a Member of Parliament and the 1908 Nobel Peac ...

but takes a rather conservative approach. As a result, the book was not very well received. Following her mother's death in 1858, Louise Bjørnsen spent her later years in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

where she died on 27 December 1899.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjornsen, Louise 1824 births 1899 deaths People from Faxe Municipality 19th-century Danish novelists Danish women novelists Danish women short story writers 19th-century Danish women writers