Herman Bang (1857-1912) wrote his debut novel at the age of 23, and both his protagonist William Hög and his decadent friend Bernhard Hoff bear autobiographical traits. William, a very dark boy, almost like a gypsy, is the last scion of an old, famous family. However, his father had already ruined his health through sensual excesses and died early from madness and drug addiction. When William realizes that he cannot lead a bourgeois life, Hoff encourages him to choose the artistic shadow realm as a refuge. In this way, William becomes the literary ancestor of Thomas Mann's Hanno Buddenbrook and Heinrich Mann's Professor Unrat. His contemporaries already perceived the realistic portrayal of societal decay as a provocation, but even more so the underlying assertion of inevitability.