In 1880 Danish novelist Herman Bang was sent as a correspondent to interview J. P. Jacobsen. Jacobsen had already been fighting tuberculosis for years, and Bang was shocked at the sickly state of the famed author of Fru Marie Grubbe. Interieurer fra det 17. Aarhundrede (1876; translated as Marie Grubbe. A Lady of the Seventeenth Century, 1917). Bang was most disturbed, though, by Jacobsen's eyes. In an article appearing in the newspaper Nutiden (5 December 1886), Bang wrote, ". . . man syntes, det laa paa én som et Par Forskerøjne, der saa lige igennem én fra en stille Krog" (they seem to stare like the eyes of an investigator, looking straight through you from a silent corner). After some uncomfortable pauses, the two authors exchanged thoughts on the novels they were currently writing. Jacobsen told Bang that the name of his most recent protagonist was "Niels . . . Niels Lyhne."

The sickly author whom...