Tuberculosis cut short the life of Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (born 7 April 1847), but before he passed from the world Jacobsen wrote two novels and stories which revolutionized Danish literature, combining realism and social criticism with an strikingly poetic style.

A scientist before he wrote fiction, Jacobsen the first to translate Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and the Ascent of Man into Danish. He took up literature after being diagnosed with the illness that eventually killed him; like his character Niels Lyhne, he was an atheist.

Jacobsen’s first novel, Marie Grubbe (1876) is a historical novel about a woman in 17th century Denmark who has an illicit affair, based on a true story. It was described by critic George Brandes as a tour-de-force, unrivalled in its kind.

His last novel, Niels Lyhne (1880), about the struggles of a young atheist in society and war, was admired by Henrik Ibsen, who eagerly read it aloud to friends, and was a major influence on Rainer Maria Rilke’s novel Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.