About the author

Gustav Johannes Wied (6 March 1858 – 24 October 1914) was a Danish writer.

Gustav Wied was born in Branderslev near Nakskov as the fifth of eleven children by Carl August Wied and Catha Wied.

He is generally known as a satirical critic of society in his time and he deliberately used his writing talents to expose the establishment, bourgeoisie and ruling class. The government had him imprisoned for 14 days in 1882 for a short story published in a newspaper. Wied wrote novels, short stories, poems and plays (including several satyr plays).

His best-known work is the novel Livsens Ondskab (1899), depicting life in a small provincial Danish town. The story revolves around customs official Knagsted, a red-bearded satyrical Diogenes, who openly ridicules the hypocrisy of the snobbish bourgeois inhabitants, and Emanual Thomsen, a tragic struggler, trying to obtain the funds needed to regain his ancestral farm. In the sequel Knagsted (1902), Wied let Knagsted comment on the contemporary fashionable society in the Bohemian spa resort of Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary).

Wied eventually lost popularity and fell ill, suffering from severe stomach aches. Badly affected by his condition and despondent, he committed suicide with an overdose of potassium cyanide in 1914.

The Gustav Wied Society was established in 1938 with the purpose of publicizing knowledge about Gustav Wied and his literary legacy.

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Fædrene æde druer

Gustav Wieds roman Fædrene æde Druer fra 1908 skildrer arvelighedens forbandelse, adelig degeneration og depravering modstillet "sund" rå drift og selvisk udfoldelse uden medmenneskelighed. Titlen er hentet fra et bibelsk citat der lyder: "I de Dage skulle de ikke mere sige: Fædrene aade sure Druer og Børnenes Tænder bleve ømme; men enhver skal dø for sin egen Misgernings Skyld, hvert Menneske, som æder de sure Druer, hans Tænder skulle blive ømme." Hovedpersonen skulle være inspireret af Wieds egen svigerfar, der var godsejer i Nordjylland.
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Publish date02 Oct 2016
Published bySFA-89
Languagedan
ISBN epub9788771940640