The Promised Land by Henrik Pontoppidan

First published:Det forjættede land, 1891-1895 (English translation, 1896)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social criticism

Time of plot: Late nineteenth century

Locale: Denmark

Principal characters

• Emanuel Hansted, a clergyman and a reformer
• Hansine, his wife
• Miss Tonnesen, his former fiancé
• Dr. Hassing, a physician

The Story:

Emanuel Hansted, the minister son of a wealthy Copenhagen couple, long ago left his hometown to take over a pastorate in the country. Somewhat of a reformer, he has become enthusiastic about the socialism rife in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, and to prove his fellowship with the peasants whom he serves, he has married a young peasant woman and has undertaken to farm the land on which his rectory is situated.

As the years have passed, Emanuel’s wife, Hansine, has presented him with three children; his land, however, has repaid him only with debts. Although he tries experiment after experiment, Emanuel’s fields do not produce enough to support his family. Stubbornly, Emanuel refuses to acknowledge that he is no farmer; he even continues to refuse any payment from his parishioners and gives away the money he receives for the benefit of the poor.

Despite Emanuel’s sacrifices, and despite his never-flagging efforts to share their lives and his ties with them through marriage, the peasants do not accept him as one of them. The fact that he came among them as an outlander is too strong for them to forget, even in the times of stress that come when the newly formed People’s Party of Denmark, representing chiefly the peasantry, tries to control the government in order to provide for the education of the masses and to improve the lot of the common people generally.

To the casual eye, Emanuel might seem to be a peasant, for he has nothing to do with the few gentry who live in the vicinity. He even distrusts the doctor, whom he has to call in occasionally to treat a member of his family. Indeed, Emanuel summons Dr. Hassing only when an emergency arises. As for his family, Emanuel has put his father and his sister entirely out of his mind; he acknowledges as kin only his wife and children, who tie him to the peasantry.

One summer, all of nature and humankind seem determined to show that Emanuel is a misfit in the rural area he has adopted. His crops are even poorer than usual; nature refuses to send the weather he needs to produce successful yields in the fields he has planted with borrowed seed. In the capital, Copenhagen, the Conservative Party gains in strength and defeats the People’s Party—first in small items, then in large. As the peasants lose their political power, the people of Emanuel’s parish begin to look at him as one who belongs to the other side.

As if these problems were not enough, Emanuel’s oldest child, a son, begins to suffer from an ear inflammation that has gone untended for two years. At last, upon Hansine’s insistence, Emanuel sends for Dr. Hassing. The physician cannot believe that Emanuel has permitted the child’s health to fall into such a dangerous state; Emanuel, on his part, does not seem to understand that the child is really ill. Failing to follow the doctor’s advice, he treats his son as if he were well and healthy. The boy dies as a result of his father’s failure to face reality.

Before long, Emanuel and Hansine begin to drift apart, for their son’s death has exacerbated a barrier between them that has been years in the making. Hansine feels that her husband is unhappy, and she believes that he actually wants to escape from his dismal, unappreciative rural parish.

Quite by chance, while out walking alone to prepare his Sunday sermon, Emanuel comes upon Dr. Hassing and a small party of picnickers. Prevailed upon to join the group, he finds among them Miss Tonnesen, his former fiancé from Copenhagen. Emanuel walks back to Dr. Hassing’s home with the picnickers and, because it is growing dark, remains for supper. The genteel conversation of the guests, the quiet wealth of the home, the very food on the table, the music after supper—all of these things remind Emanuel of what he lost when he refused Miss Tonnesen’s love, rejected the family warmth of his parents’ home, and turned instead toward the simple, rude life of the peasants. In the days following his evening at the doctor’s home, he ridicules the people with whom he spent a few hours, but Hansine sees that he is merely trying to convince himself that he has chosen the right path in his life’s work.

A few weeks later, Miss Tonnesen, who has traveled to the rural area to prove to herself that her former suitor has sunk beneath her, visits the rectory. Her father was formerly the rector of the parish, and under his care the rectory had been a place of beauty, both within and without. His daughter, seeing it for the first time in many years, is amazed to see how Emanuel has let it fall into disrepair. Only a few of the rooms, equipped with the barest of essentials, are in use. The gardens and lawns are overgrown; even the outbuildings and fields have gone years without proper care. Miss Tonnesen can scarcely believe that the man she loved could have permitted the grounds in his charge, and himself as well, to slip into the state in which she finds them.

Miss Tonnesen’s visit bothers Hansine, who sees in the other woman all that her husband gave up when he married her instead of someone from his own social class. Even Hansine and Emanuel’s children ask if they can go to Copenhagen to visit the beautiful lady. Emanuel himself realizes that Miss Tonnesen represents something he has lost but can still regain. He becomes dissatisfied with the peasantry, and his parishioners quickly sense his unrest. His farmworkers leave him when, angry because the rains have ruined any chance he had of harvesting a crop of rye, he accuses them of laziness.

The climax comes following the death of the director of the district high school. This man, as head of the institution, has done much for the peasants, and everyone in the region attends his funeral. After the funeral is over, an informal political meeting takes place. Emanuel, asked to address the meeting, speaks out against the sloth and narrow prejudices of the peasants. As he is speaking, a murmuring arises among those present; he finally has to stop speaking when many in the crowd begin to shout insults and ridicule. As he slowly leaves the meeting, he hears the next speaker declare that the pastor should return to his own people.

Emanuel meets Hansine at the edge of the crowd, and slowly they start for home. On the way, Hansine tells Emanuel that he ought to return to Copenhagen and she to her former life. He sadly agrees. The children, it is decided, will go with their father. To Emanuel’s delight, his father and sister write to him and ask him to return as soon as possible. As a result, one morning he and his remaining two children climb into a carriage and drive away as Hansine turns to walk to her parents’ cottage.

Bibliography

Gray, Charlotte Schiander. “From Opposition to Identification: The Social and Psychological Structure Behind Henrik Pontoppidan’s Literary Development.” Scandinavian Studies 51 (Summer, 1979): 273-284. Examines the character of Emanuel Hansted as a kind of negative parallel to the author, describing how Pontoppidan swerves away from Hansted’s excessive idealism in his own authorial perspective.

Ingwersen, Niels.“The Crisis of the Modern Breakthrough.” In A History of Danish Literature, edited by Sven H. Rossel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, in cooperation with the American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1992. Contains a few pages summarizing Pontoppidan’s life, literary career, and writings. Describes The Promised Land as one of his three major novels, all of which depict protagonists who fail to attain the promise of their youth.

Jones, W. Glyn. “Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943).” Modern Language Review 52, no. 3 (July, 1957): 576-583. Emphasizes Pontoppidan’s interest in Danish history and politics, especially his relationship to the government of Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup. Asserts that the novel is the author’s moral judgment on the Danish nation.

Lebowitz, Naomi. “The World’s Pontoppidan and His Lykke Per.” Scandinavian Studies 78, no. 1 (Spring, 2006): 43-70. Focuses on Pontoppidan’s eight-volume novel Lykke-Per (1898-1904), which has never been translated into English. Describes how Lykke-Per is concerned with the problem of spiritual authority during the early years of Danish modernism; compares the novel’s protagonist to Pontoppidan. Mentions The Promised Land and other works by Pontoppidan.

Madsen, Borge. “The Promised Land.” In Scandinavian Studies, edited by Carl F. Bayerschmidt and Erik J. Friis. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1965. Focuses on the inner psychology of Emanuel Hansted, exploring the motivations behind his impracticality and the novel’s ambivalent perspective toward the fantastic.

Mitchell, P. M. Henrik Pontoppidan. Boston: Twayne, 1979. Provides an excellent introduction to Pontoppidan’s work. Discussion of The Promised Land emphasizes the novel’s skepticism toward traditional Danish state and church structures.

Robertson, John George. “Henrik Pontopiddan.” In Essays and Addresses on Literature. 1935. Reprint. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. Explores The Promised Land as a manual for the disillusioned. Discusses the heavy influence of the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen on Pontopiddan’s work.