Translated fiction set in Denmark – Lucky Per

Submitted: 18th April 2019

Translation Thursday…Henrik Pontoppidan

Translated novels are always interesting to read. When one is 100 years old and has a new translation, it’s worth more than a brief glance.

Lucky Per seems to be a simple title, but the word Lykke in Danish can mean both happiness and luck. This novel therefore looks into the difference between the two and what the relationship between them is.

Translation Thursday…Lucky Per

BookTrail Locations in the novel

#Bookreview

An interesting novel this and one which reminded me of an adult fairy tale in the way there’s a moral side to the story and an examination of a man who breaks away from his family and seeks his own fortune

Per breaks with his religious family in order to become an engineer so has to break the constraints of his family history and social background. However, what he rejects is what he is going to need later on. The moral being be careful what you shun on the way up as you might need it on the way down, or words to that effect.

A lot depends on how the reader interprets the title – The Danish word for Lucky means both lucky and happiness and this difference is what the book is all about. Can a man be happy without luck and vice versa? The author apparently wrote some of this book from his own experiences as he himself left a religious family and potential career to train as an engineer..

The sense of place incorporates a lot of the history of Copenhagen and the religious buildings of the city. There’s a brief sejour in Berlin but the novel is firmly Danish and looks at the history and social mores of the time.

This was quite an academic text to read and it was slow and pondering in places but the overall message of the book and the story stands up on its own. A multilayered novel that seems to be as relevant to today’s world as it was when it was written. This translation in English and so will reach a new audience.