SOURCE: "The Romantic Literature of Poland in the Nineteenth Century (1886)," in Poland: A Study of the Land, People, and Literature, William Heinemann, 1904, pp. 192-308.

Brandes, a Danish literary critic and biographer, was the principal leader of the intellectual movement that helped to bring an end to Scandinavian cultural isolation. He believed that literature reflects the spirit and problems of its time and that it must be understood within its social and aesthetic context. Brandes's major critical work, Hovedstroomninger i det 19de aar-hundredes litteratur (1871; Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, 1872-90), won him admiration for his ability to view literary movements within the broader context of all of European literature. In the following excerpt from a work first published in 1903, he discusses some influences on Polish Romantic literature, comparing it with Romantic literature of other countries.

The period 1820-1850 was the richest and most important as regards poetry [of...