The elegant ones
Portraits of eleven Danish prose writers.
Princess Mary is praised in the press for being elegant in dress and behavior. In sports, elegance has something to do with effortlessness. The footballer Michael Laudrup has been highlighted for his elegant playing style. So is tennis player Roger Federer. The elegant sportsman naturally has the physique in order, but he wins through technique and ingenuity. An elegant boxer moves easily and is quickly gone again after planting a straight left to the opponent's head. An elegant cyclist sits effortlessly in the saddle and has a light thread.
But what is elegance in print?
John Chr. Jørgensen portrays eleven Danish writers, all of whom have words for being elegant: Georg Brandes, Herman Bang, Andreas Vinding, Valdemar Koppel, Agnes Henningsen, Loulou Lassen, Knud Sønderby, Kai Friis Møller, Lise Sørensen, Hans Hertel and Henrik Wivel. Three features prove to be characteristic of elegance: lightness, charm and superiority.
It is an art to write elegantly, but it is an art that can be learned to some extent. Agnes Henningsen received personal writing guidance from Herman Bang, and Georg Brandes' elegant criticism has set a model for posterity.
Finally, the author discusses whether polemical coarseness (against Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Pia Kjærsgaard) and political speeches (by Mette Frederiksen) can be elegant - and whether there is a balloon in ballet criticism.
