GOLDSCHMIDT, MER ARON

born Oct. 26, 1819, Vordingborg, Den. died Aug. 15, 1887, Copenhagen Danish writer of Jewish descent whose work foreshadowed later Realism. He went to school in Copenhagen and planned to study medicine but became a journalist instead. In 1840 he founded Corsaren, a satirical weekly expressing his radical ideas. His own witty, and often politically ambiguous, contributions made the publication influential. A feud with the philosopher Sren Kierkegaard caused him to give up the paper and go abroad in 1846. His first novel, En Jde (1845; The Jew of Denmark, 1852), described the gulf between the Jew and Danish society. Returning in 1847, Goldschmidt abandoned radicalism and founded a new periodical, Nord og Syd, in which his novel Hjemls (which he himself translated as Homeless, 3 vol., 1861) was serialized (1853-57). He visited England several times and thought of settling there but decided to remain a Danish writer. In the 1860s he was regarded as Denmark's most important novelist, but his influence later declined in the face of the new radical movement led by Georg Brandes. Goldschmidt's finest descriptions of Jewish life are to be found in his short stories, notably in Fortllinger (1846; "Tales"). In Ravnen (1867), one of the outstanding Danish novels of the 19th century, he depicts Jews with an unusual blend of sympathy and irony. Goldschmidt is an exquisite stylist, especially in his short stories. His philosophy of retributive justice, or nemesis, underlies most of his novels, and also his memoirs, Livserindringer og Resultater (1877).