The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood, Youth, Dependency

by Tove Ditlevsen

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: The Copenhagen Trilogy (1-3)

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516	16	50,382	(4.15)	27
Tove Ditlevsen is today celebrated as one of the most important and unique voices in twentieth-century Danish literature, and The Copenhagen Trilogy (1969-71) is her acknowledged masterpiece. Childhood tells the story of a misfit child's single-minded determination to become a poet, Youth describes her early experiences of sex, work, and independence. Dependency picks up the story as the narrator embarks on the first of her four marriages and goes on to describe her horrible descent into drug addiction, enabled by her sinister, gaslighting doctor-husband. Throughout, the narrator grapples with the tension between her vocation as a writer and her competing roles as daughter, wife, mother, and drug addict, and she writes about female experience and identity in a way that feels very fresh and pertinent to today's discussions around feminism. Ditlevsen's trilogy is remarkable for its intensity and its immersive depiction of a world of complex female friendships, family and growing up-in this sense, it's Copenhagen's answer to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. She can also be seen as a spiritual forerunner of confessional writers like Karl Ove Knausgaard, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy. Her trilogy is drawn from her own experiences but unfolds like the most compelling kind of fiction.… (more)

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I lollygagged through the initial book ([b:Childhood|53317525|Childhood (The Copenhagen Trilogy, #1)|Tove Ditlevsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594618325l/53317525._SY75_.jpg|2547020]), then gave up on this dense memoir. Recently, I tried again by going straight to [b:Youth|53317526|Youth (The Copenhagen Trilogy #2)|Tove Ditlevsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594617942l/53317526._SY75_.jpg|21575256] and goose-stepped to the end through the German occupation of Copenhagen, [a:Tove Ditlevsen|176095|Tove Ditlevsen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1392936294p2/176095.jpg]'s four marriages, three kids, her intense devotion to writing numerous poems and novels, her appallingly realistic descriptions of addiction to Demerol, the cravings and trials of getting clean. Her craving never stops as she describes in [b:Dependency|53317527|Dependency (The Copenhagen Trilogy #3)|Tove Ditlevsen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594618059l/53317527._SY75_.jpg|2547028]while she's at the mercy of her mentally ill medical researcher husband for her injections: "Hell on earth. I'm freezing, I'm shaking, I'm sweating, I'm crying and yelling his name into the empty room." I was continually aware of how much better the Danish medical system is than ours (doctors actually came to the house and answered calls at unlikely hours), she spent months in a rehab facility at state expense under a caring doctor). Her specificity is part of her writing skill. A very good book. (

)

featherbooks | May 7, 2024 |

Gripping. (

)

Kalapana | Jan 22, 2024 |

https://shawjonathan.com/2023/08/17/tove-ditlevsens-childhood-youth-dependency-a...

shawjonathan | Aug 17, 2023 |

Very interesting trilogy, quite well-done - substance, writing, development. I loved it till the last page or two. Then I reflected that this may well have been how it really worked out for the author. If so, bravo! (

)

RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |

Brilliant. Some writers are just on a whole 'nother level. (

)

BibliophageOnCoffee | Aug 12, 2022 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Tove Ditlevsen	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Goldman, Michael Favala	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Nunnally, Tiina	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

The Copenhagen Trilogy (1-3)

Belongs to Publisher Series

L'Altra Narrativa

Contains

Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen

Youth by Tove Ditlevsen

Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

▾Awards and Honors

Distinctions

The A.V. Club best books (2021)

The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Nonfiction - Memoir – 2021)

NPR: Books We Love (2021)

SWR-Bestenliste (2021)

Notable Lists

Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction, 8 – 2021)

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Canonical title

The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood, Youth, Dependency

Original title

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People/Characters

Important places

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Copenhague, Dinamarca

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Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

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Al matí hi havia esperança.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

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L'Altra Editorial

Blurbers

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Jensen, Liz

Preston, Alex

Self, John

Original language

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Danès

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▾Book descriptions

Tove Ditlevsen is today celebrated as one of the most important and unique voices in twentieth-century Danish literature, and The Copenhagen Trilogy (1969-71) is her acknowledged masterpiece. Childhood tells the story of a misfit child's single-minded determination to become a poet, Youth describes her early experiences of sex, work, and independence. Dependency picks up the story as the narrator embarks on the first of her four marriages and goes on to describe her horrible descent into drug addiction, enabled by her sinister, gaslighting doctor-husband. Throughout, the narrator grapples with the tension between her vocation as a writer and her competing roles as daughter, wife, mother, and drug addict, and she writes about female experience and identity in a way that feels very fresh and pertinent to today's discussions around feminism. Ditlevsen's trilogy is remarkable for its intensity and its immersive depiction of a world of complex female friendships, family and growing up-in this sense, it's Copenhagen's answer to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. She can also be seen as a spiritual forerunner of confessional writers like Karl Ove Knausgaard, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy. Her trilogy is drawn from her own experiences but unfolds like the most compelling kind of fiction.

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