The Danish Girl: A Novel
by David Ebershoff
List Price:
Our Price: $1.31
You Save: $13.69 (91%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David EbershoffEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-02-01
ISBN: 0140298487
Number of pages: 270
Publisher: Penguin
Book Reviews of The Danish Girl: A Novel
Book Review: A complicated love
Summary: 4 Stars
Very loosely based on the story of the first man to undergo a sex-change operation, this novel explores a rather complicated marriage. Greta and Einar are both painters living in Copenhagen in the 1920s when it is discovered that Einar feels deep down that he is really a woman. While this type of situation is often difficult even today, it was almost unheard of during their time. The book does a great job of exploring the thoughts and feelings of both husband and wife as they deal with it together.
As a boy, Einar realized he had certain feelings which might not be typical for a boy his age but he never pursued them far because his father strongly disapproved. It wasn't until many years later after he married Greta, a beautiful younger woman from California who painted portraits, that he experimented with this side of his nature. One day Greta needed a stand-in when the woman she was painting was unavailable and asked Einar to put on a dress, stockings, and heels. Einar was both excited and frightened simultaneously. And that was just the beginning.
Over time, Greta encouraged Einar to explore it further; he began using the name Lili and adopting a different persona whenever he was dressed as a woman. Greta had conflicted feelings over this - part of her was supportive of Einar in his quest to discover who he was and valued "Lili" (she became her favorite subject to pain), but another part of her felt she was losing the Einar she had met and fell in love with originally.
Once he started to explore his real feelings, it became a question of how far could Einar go? Einar seemed to know instinctively that he wanted to feel the love of a man - but as a woman not as another man. It was very difficult for him - he still had feelings for his wife and what he felt went against the social grain. What could he do? With the help of Greta and her twin brother Carlisle, Einar pursued it further. He consulted a variety of doctors looking for answers.
In the end, I feel the book offers an interesting insight into some of the experiences that transgenders might go through. The relationship between Greta and Einar is quite different but is likely not unique. A number of intriguing questions are raised making the book thought-provoking as well as entertaining. It is definitely a very different kind of love story.
Summary of The Danish Girl: A Novel
Inspired by the true story of Danish painter Einar Wegener and his California-born wife, this tender portrait of a marriage asks: What do you do when someone you love wants to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked of a husband by his wife on an afternoon chilled by the Baltic wind while both are painting in their studio. Her portrait model has canceled, and would he mind slipping into a pair of women's shoes and stockings for a few moments so she can finish the painting on time. Of course, he answers. Anything at all. With that, one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the twentieth century begins.Though the title character of David Ebershoff's debut novel is a transsexual, the book is less concerned with transgender issues than the mysterious and ineffable nature of love. Loosely based on the life of Danish painter Einar Wegener who, in 1931, became the first man to undergo a sex-change operation, The Danish Girl borrows the bare bones of his story as a jumping-off point for an exploration of how Wegener's decisions affected the people around him. Chief among these is his Californian wife, Greta, also a painter, who unwittingly sets her husband's feet on the path to transformation. While trying to finish a portrait of an opera singer who has cancelled a sitting, she asks Einar to stand in for her subject, putting on her dress, stockings, and shoes. The moment silk touches his skin, he is shaken:
Einar could concentrate only on the silk dressing his skin, as if it were a bandage. Yes, that was how it felt the first time: the silk was so fine and airy that it felt like a gauze--a balm-soaked gauze lying delicately on healing skin. Even the embarrassment of standing before his wife began to no longer matter, for she was busy painting with a foreign intensity in her face. Einar was beginning to enter a shadowy world of dreams where Anna's dress could belong to anyone, even to him.Greta soon recognizes her husband's affinity for feminine attire, and encourages him not only to dress like a woman, but to take on a woman's persona, as well. "Why don't we call you Lili?" she suggests. What starts out as a harmless game soon evolves into something deeper, and potentially threatening to their marriage. Yet Greta's love proves to be enduring if not immutable. As Einar inexorably transforms, he steps beyond "that small dark space between two people where a marriage exists" and Greta lets him go.
Ebershoff does a remarkable job of historical prestidigitation, creating the sights and sounds and smells of 1930s Denmark and making it seem easy. Even more remarkable is his treatment of Greta: he gets inside her head and heart, and renders her in such loving detail that her reactions make perfect sense. Einar is more of a cipher, and ultimately less interesting than his wife. But in the end, this is Greta's book and David Ebershoff has done her proud. The Danish Girl marks a promising fictional debut. --Sheila Bright
Family Saga Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Family Saga Books
Elephant Manby Christine Sparks
Ballantine Books; Published: 1986-11-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.02
Price in other shops:
Assegaiby Wilbur Smith
Thomas Dunne Books; Published: 2009-05-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Birds of Preyby Wilbur Smith
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2003-05-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $48.99
An Act of Loveby Nancy Thayer
St Martins Pr; Published: 1997-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops:
Honoluluby Alan Brennert
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2009-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.67
Price in other shops:
Family Treeby Barbara Delinsky
Anchor; Published: 2009-10-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Those Who Save Usby Jenna Blum
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2005-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
Vinegar Hillby A. Manette Ansay
Penguin USA (P); Published: 2000-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
Billy Phelan's Greatest Gameby William Kennedy
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1983-01-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.64
Price in other shops:
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Comfort Womanby Nora Okja Keller
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Geek Love: A Novelby Katherine Dunn
Vintage; Published: 2002-06-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.86
Price in other shops:
Hottentot Venus: A Novelby Barbara Chase-Riboud
Anchor; Published: 2004-11-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.58
Price in other shops:
The Sand Childby Tahar Ben Jelloun
The Johns Hopkins University Press; Published: 2000-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.97
Price in other shops:
Monsieur Venus: A Materialist Novel (Mla Texts and Translations)by Rachilde, Liz Constable, Madeleine Elise Reynier Boyd, Melanie Hawthorne
Modern Language Assn of Amer; Published: 2004-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
M. Butterfly.by David Henry Hwang, David Henry Hwang
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1998-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word)by Thea Hillman
Manic D Press, Inc.; Published: 2008-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.24
Price in other shops:
Pasadena: A Novelby David Ebershoff
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-07-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops:
Stone Butch Blues: A Novelby Leslie Feinberg
Alyson Books; Published: 2004-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.43
Price in other shops:
The 19th Wife: A Novelby David Ebershoff
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2009-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops: