In 1987 Martin Andersen Nexø, who had first become popular in the early years of the twentieth century, suddenly achieved new prominence. The movie Pelle the Conqueror, based on Nexø's novel Pelle Erobreren (4 volumes, 1906-1910; translated as Pelle the Conqueror, 4 volumes, 1913-1916), was a hit with critics and the public alike, and it received an Academy Award as the best foreign film of the year. Audiences delighted in watching Lasse, an elderly man, played superbly by Max von Sydow, and Pelle, his small son, survive the brutish farm life on the Danish island of Bornholm. The motion picture is filled with scenes that reveal the inhumanity of life on this remnant of the feudal system--one striking scene shows Pelle being abused and humiliated by the farmhands--and it is made clear that Pelle and his father are surrounded by people who are defective as human beings. The...