Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Qupperneq 183

REVUE LITTÉRAIRE
the activities of Danish engineers
abroad, Danish oceanographic re-
search, and our cultural work in
Greenland.
It remains to speak a few words
about the form in which the work
appears. The editorial committee
has endeavoured to strike a golden
mean between an easy journalistic
style and the dry and schematic
form proper to a work of reference.
Two things have contributed to
make this difficult: in the first
place, the many facts, names, and
figures which had to be included
tend to produce an effect similar to
that of a textbook. In the second
place, the scantiness of the space at
the disposal of each contributor has
evidently been felt by many of
them as something like a straight
jacket. Nevertheless, it may be con-
fidently asserted that the book con-
tains several sections which in an
exemplary way combine firmness of
outline with a judicious selection
of illuminating details. These sec-
tions provide at the same time a
wealth of detailed information and
a lucid survey of the main tenden-
cies which the details are meant to
illustrate.
As regards the outward form of
the book, it may be described as a
god example of solid Danish book
production of the handbook type.
As it is not always the case in modern
works of this kind, the pictures are
not allowed to usurp an indepen-
dent part: they are subordinated to
the text and serve to illustrate the
161
latter. The object of the editors has
been to provide as many new and
hitherto unpublished pictures as
possible, and to make the selection
a lively and instructive supplement
to the letterpress, and not a merely
decorative accompaniment to the
latter. To maintain that they have
completely succeeded in this would
be saying too much, but they have
at least made a serious effort to
avoid that haphazardness in the
selection of pictures which unfor-
tunately so often mars large works
planned on similar lines.
On the whole, the work confines
itself to the period from 1900 till
1940, i. e. the epoch during which
the government of the Danish State
has been on a completely demo-
cratic basis. Only occasionally does
it glance back in order to explain
the origin of present-day condi-
tions. This is due to the fact that
the book in a way continues and
replaces an earlier work, “Danmarks
Kultur ved Aar 1900” (Danish
Civilization in 1900), which was
prepared on the occasion of the
World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
In several respects, this work from
the turn of the century has served
as a model for the present book;
on the other hand, the editors of
the latter have been able to learn
from the mistakes of the earlier
attempt. The work under review
is not only larger and more com-
prehensive, but it is also more
systematically planned, wider in
its scope, and more profound in its
Le Nord, 1944, 1-2
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