The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Brigge reads poetry in the National Library in Paris. Like everyone else in the room, he is absorbed in his book. He enjoys being amongst people reading, even though he is poor, and his clothes are wearing thin. Brigge prides himself on his cleanliness. Despite his poverty, he believes that his clean fingernails and clean (but worn) suit mean he can enter most places in Paris. Some poor people can see through his pretentions, however, even though they mostly continue to treat him as a gentleman. The attention of these "outcasts" (63) makes Brigge self-conscious and paranoid. Such encounters seem to happen at least once a day, but he feels safe in his room. Thinking about poetry, Brigge envies the poet's understanding of women. Brigge imagines himself as a poet, living alone in a house in the countryside and writing whenever and whatever he pleases. However, "things have turned out differently" (64), and he is now poor and alone in Paris.

Brigge envies the small shop owners who are able to pass the time in their stores by reading as they "don't worry about tomorrow" (65). He describes his world, in which poor people visit the Louvre museum to keep warm and blind old men push vegetable carts along the streets filled with tall adjoining houses, which seem on the brink of collapse.