Niels Lyhne #229323

Unlike Niels Lyhne, who never formed in his own image the clay he had carted together for his Adam, Jacobsen shaped his material in the image of the vision that had taken possession of him at the inception of his idea. Though execution always cost him an agonizing effort, he did not Shirk it, and though he worked four years'on each of his two novels, Marie Gruéée and Niels Ly/zne, he never lost sight of his goal. The truth is that, however much he might abuse his own slothfulness — which was due largely to failing health — Jacobsen had a slow, deep strength by virtue of which he managed to write his immortal works.