The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground

Holberg, the outstanding genius of the Danish Enlightenment, contributed in the areas of history, philosophy, and literature. His name stands by that of Moliere as a master of European comedy. In his own country, 33 comedies created a national repertoire and a theatrical tradition.

Holberg's strength in creative writing lay not in extended plot but in the individual scene, the anecdote, the characterization. Peder Paars (1719), a mock heroic poem, gave Holberg the framework in which to satirize the government, the church, and the university. The novel Niels Klim (1741) likewise reported on human foibles. Students of eighteenth-century European literature will want to seek out translations of Holberg's philosophical writing.

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