8 h 0 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 0 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the dreams that make your life feel rich also keep you from living it?
In a quiet house among Jutland's heath and fields, Niels Lyhne grows up on his mother Bartholine's poetry, faith and hopes of glory. His gentle father offers calm reason; his bitter tutor, Bigum, feeds ambition. Niels longs for greatness, but must discover what his dreams are worth beyond the family home.
In Copenhagen, Niels meets a world far from his sheltered childhood. His friend Erik Refstrup, a confident painter, lives with an ease he envies. Fennimore brings restless feeling into both their lives. As love fails to match his hopes and religious belief loses its hold, Niels faces a hard question: how can he live without comforting illusions?
What you’ll discover
- The cost of dreaming Follow a rich imagination that deepens feeling while putting the plain work of living out of reach.
- Love beyond the ideal Explore the gap between the perfect love Niels imagines and the people he meets.
- Friendship touched by envy Meet Erik, whose confidence throws Niels's own doubts and restless ambitions into sharper relief.
- Belief put to the test Consider what courage means for Niels as he tries to live without faith in God.
- A closely observed world Discover Jacobsen's patient attention to nature, small details and the shifting moods of inner life.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy richly painted scenes, characters who think and feel in full, and questions about faith, art and love. It suits readers who like to watch a mind grow across a whole life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dreamer meets an unanswering world
- His parents offer different worlds
- Grief turns prayer into defiance
- Erik draws Niels beyond childhood
- Imagined love avoids an honest declaration
- Unbelief calls for human responsibility
- Desire unsettles a lasting friendship
- Seeing clearly means surrendering comforting dreams
- Imagining life can displace living it
Who’s who
- Niels LyhneA shy, gifted dreamer from Lönborggaard who wants to be a poet and tries to live without comforting illusions.
- BartholineNiels's mother, a farmer's daughter who lives on poetry and longs to be a heroine in the world beyond.
- EdeleNiels's aunt, a Copenhagen beauty sent to the country for her health, whom the boy adores.
- Mr. BigumThe proud, half-deaf tutor who thinks himself a hidden philosopher and falls hopelessly for Edele.
- Erik RefstrupNiels's cousin and boyhood friend, a strong, easygoing young artist who is afraid of losing his talent.
- Mrs. BoyeA witty widow in Copenhagen who loves poetry and freedom and wants to be loved as herself.
- FennimoreA consul's daughter from Fjordby, sweet and passionate, who loves Erik and carries a heavy sense of guilt.
- Dr. HjerrildA thoughtful doctor and Niels's steady friend, who doubts big causes and gently guards against fanaticism.
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- Paperback
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Niels Lyhne
by Jens Peter Jacobsen · 1880
A Danish dreamer raised on fairy tales tries to live without illusions, in love, in friendship and before God.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What happens to a boy raised on fairy tales when life refuses to answer his prayers? At the bedside of a woman he adores, young Niels Lyhne kneels and begs God to let her live.
Niels Lyhne at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 25 min3 h 30 min fast, 5 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 63,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1880by Jens Peter Jacobsen
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A mother's dreams meet a father's quiet earth
The story opens before Niels is born. Bartholine Blid is a farmer's daughter who lives on poems and trusts them above everything else. Her family talks only of land and business. She longs to be one of the adored girls in the verses she reads.
Her suitor is young Lyhne of Lönborggaard, who has travelled in Europe and seems to her a messenger from the great world. She turns every hour with him into a romantic episode. They marry. Then the spell ends. Lyhne longs for the calm of embers in ashes, and Bartholine grieves for her lost illusions. Each has loved a picture, and the picture fades.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1880
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Jacobsen, Jens Peter. Niels Lyhne. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/niels-lyhne.
Jacobsen, J. P. (2026). Niels Lyhne. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/niels-lyhne (Original work published 1880)
Jacobsen, Jens Peter. Niels Lyhne. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/niels-lyhne.
@book{jacobsen2026niels,
author = {Jacobsen, Jens Peter},
title = {Niels Lyhne},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/niels-lyhne},
note = {First published 1880}
}
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What is Niels Lyhne about?
It follows a gifted Danish dreamer from childhood on a manor to adult life in Copenhagen and abroad. He wants to be a poet, loves and loses several people, and tries to build a life without God or comforting illusions.
Who is Mrs. Boye in Niels Lyhne?
She is a witty, childlike widow in Copenhagen who loves poetry and speaks freely about art and love. Niels falls for her, and their romantic game shapes his early adult years and his ideas about women.
Is Niels Lyhne a true story, and when was it written?
It is a novel, not a true story, though Jacobsen drew on the ideas and moods of his age. He wrote it in the 1870s and it was published in 1880, a few years before his death.
The author
Jens Peter Jacobsen
1847–1885 · Danish novelist and poet
J. P. Jacobsen was a Danish novelist, poet, and botanist. He was born in Thisted, Denmark, in 1847 and died there in 1885. He also lived in Copenhagen. His novels include Marie Grubbe, published in 1876, and Niels Lyhne, published in 1880. He translated works by Charles Darwin into Danish.
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