The author, Karin Michaëlis, a Dane, is not at all known in France. _The
Dangerous Age_ is not her first book; but it is, I feel sure, the first
that has been translated into French. Naturally enough the
Danish-Scandinavian literature is transmitted in the first instance
through newspapers and reviews, and through German publishers. This is
the result of local proximity and the affinity of language. Several
novels by Karin Michaëlis were known to the German public before _The
Dangerous Age_; but none of them had awakened the same keen curiosity,
provoked such discussion, or won such success as this book. In all the
countries of Central Europe the most widely read novel at the present
moment is _The Dangerous Age_. Edition succeeds edition, and the fortune
of the book has been increased by the quarrels it has provoked; for it
has been much discussed and criticised, not on account of its literary
value, which is incontestable, but because of the idea which animates
it.

Shall I confess that it was just this great success, and the polemical
renown of the novel, that roused my suspicions when first I chanced to
see the German version of it? Contrary to the reputation which our
neighbours on the other side of the Vosges like to foist upon us, French
literature, at the present day, is far less noisily scandalous than
their own. It is only necessary to glance over the advertisements which
certain German publishing firms issue at the end of their publications
in order to be convinced of this. It is amusing to find every kind of
"puff" couched in the exaggerated style which the modern German affects.

It was with some bias and suspicion, therefore, that I took up _Das
gefährliche Alter_. When I started to read the book, nothing could have
been further from my mind than to write, a French version and to present