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STRINDBERG, AUGUST (1849- )
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See also:STRINDBERG, See also:AUGUST (1849- ) , See also:Swedish author, was See also:born at See also:Stockholm on the 22nd of See also:January 1849. He entered the university of See also:Upsala in 1867, but was compelled by poverty to interrupt his studies, which were resumed in 1870. See also:Ibis gloomy experiences of student See also:life are reflected in a See also:series of sketches named after two districts of Upsala, Fran Fjerdingen och Svartbacken (1877), which aroused See also:great indignation at the See also:time. After various experiments as schoolmaster, private See also:tutor and actor, he turned to journalism, and afterwards more than avenged himself for the triviality and narrowness of his new surroundings in his famous Roda rummet (" The Red See also:Room," 1879), described in the sub-See also:title as sketches of See also:literary and See also:artistic life. The " red room " was the See also:meeting-See also:place in a small cafe in Stockholm of a society of needy journalists and artists, whose failure and despair are shown off against the prosperity of a typical See also:bourgeois couple. In these stories Strindberg's fanatic hatred of womankind already makes its See also:appearance, the disasters of the See also:principal figures being precipitated by the selfishness and immorality of the See also:women. In 1894 some See also:friends procured him a place in the Royal library at Stockholm where he was employed until 1882. He was already an ardent student of See also:physical See also:science; he now gave See also:proof of his tersatility by learning See also:Chinese in See also:order to See also:catalogue the Chinese See also:MSS. in the library; and his See also:French monograph on the See also:early relations of See also:Sweden with the Far See also:East was read in 1879 before the See also:Academy of See also:Inscriptions in See also:Paris. He continued to write for the See also:newspapers and for the See also:theatre. His first important See also:drama, See also:Master Olof, which had been refused in 1872 by the theatrical authorities, was produced after repeated revision in 1878. Although real See also:historical personages—Gustavus See also:Vasa, Olaus, Petri the reformer and Gerdt the Anabaptist—figure as leading characters, they are made symbolic of the See also:present-See also:day forces of progress and reaction. The See also:production of Master See also:Olaf marked the beginning of the new See also:movement in Swedish literature, and the Red Room and the collection of satirical sketches entitled Det nya riket (" The New See also:Kingdom," 1882) increased the growing hostility to Strindberg. Two comedies See also:drawn from See also:medieval subjects, Gillets hemlighet (" The See also:Secret of the Guild," 18t8o) and here Bengt's Hustru (" Bengt's Wife," 1882), were followed by the legendary drama of Lycko Pers resa (" The See also:Journal of Lucky See also:Peter "), written in 1882 and produced with great success on the See also:stage a See also:year later. In 1883 Strindberg See also:left Sweden with his See also:family, to travel in See also:Germany, See also:Italy, See also:France and See also:Denmark, See also:writing for See also:foreign reviews and producing various volumes of stories and articles. Meanwhile he had been developing his attack on the feminist movement, which had received a great stimulus in Scandinavia from the dramas of See also:Ibsen. In Giftas (" Married," 1884) he produced twelve stories of married life to support his view of the See also:sex question; this was followed in 1886 by a second collection with the same title, which was written in a more violent See also:tone and lacked some of the See also:art of the earlier attack. He was prosecuted for assailing the See also:dogma of the communion, but he returned to Sweden to defend himself, and was acquitted. Strindberg's mastery of the art of description is perhaps seen at its best in the novels of life in the Swedish See also:archipelago, in Hemsoborna (" The Inhabitants of Hemsti, 1887), one of the best existing novels of popular Swedish life, and Skarkarlslif (" Life of an See also:Island Lad," 1890). Tschaudala (1889) and I hafsbandet (" In the See also:Bond of the See also:Sea," 1890) show the See also:influence of a study of See also:Nietzsche. In 1887 he returned to drama with the powerful tragedy Fadren, produced in Paris also as Le pere; this was followed in 1888 by Froken Julie, described as a naturalistic drama, to which he wrote a See also:preface in the nature of a manifesto, directed against critics who had resented the gloom of Fadren. Kamraterna (" Comrades," 1888), which belongs to the same See also:group of six plays, was followed by Himmelrikets nycklar (" The Keys of the Kingdom of See also:Heaven," 1892), a legendary drama, and by the historical dramas of Erik XIV. (1899), Gustav Adolf (1900, and Gustav Vasa (1899); Till See also:Damascus (1888) indicated a return in the direction of See also:religion; Folkungasagan (1899) was represented in 1901; and the two plays Avent (" See also:Advent ") and Brott och brott (" See also:Crime for Crime "), printed together in 1899, were successfully represented in 1900, both in Sweden and Germany. Strindberg has provided a quantity of what is really auto-See also:biographical material, with an See also:account of the origin of his various books, in the See also:form of a novel, Tjensteqvinnans son (" The Son of a Servant," 1886-1887), with the sub-title of "A Soul's Development." The revelations of this See also:book explain much of the bitterness of his See also:work, and it was followed in 1893 by a See also:fourth See also:part in See also:German, See also:Die Beichte eines Thoren (" A See also:Fool's See also:Confession "), the See also:printing of which was forbidden in Sweden. With these should be classed his Inferno (1897) and Somngangarnatter (" The Nights of a Somnambulist," 1900). Strindberg's first See also:marriage was an unfortunate one, and was dissolved in 1893. He then married an See also:Austrian See also:lady, from whom he was separated in 1896. In Igor he married the Swedish actress Harriet Bosse, from whom he was amicably separated soon afterwards. He suffered at different times from See also:mental attacks, of which he gave See also:analytic accounts on his recovery. A number of criticisms on Strindberg from eminent hands are collected in En bok om Strindberg (See also:Karlstad, 1894). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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