February 2012
2 posts
The Scandinavian gloom
“The story of Arne is simple though pathetic, and its incidents serve very well as the occasions for descriptions of the country life with which the author is familiar. These sketches are remarkably pretty – weddings, dancing-parties, nutting-parties, and the like.
…
The general tone of this tale is happy and genial, though there are one or two shades of truly Scandinavian gloom...
Arne as instructive literature
‘It is not exactly a book to put into the hands of little children; and children of a larger growth will do well not to accept all its principles, nor catch the inspiration of its spirit. There are touches of heathenishness about it – heathenishness of tone, and sentiment, and language – which is not to be admired.’
London Quarterly Review, London: April 1867
January 2012
1 post
Home Life in (Denmark and) Norway
‘Probably most people, who have ever given Norway a thought, have wondered that the country whose swarming Vikinger made the Northern Sea a Scandinavian lake in the tenth century, should have subsided so irrevocably into a province, with no higher interests than the cod-fishery and the timber-trade.’
The National Review, London: January 1863
May 2011
3 posts
A lewed accusation
‘The intellectual feebleness of readers in general prevents their forming a discriminating estimate of the worth of such works; and most of those who are capable of discrimination have had their standard of expectation so loewred by the production of mediocrity, that they languidly acquiesce in the implied assumption that novels are removed from the canons of common-sense criticism.’
...
Gosse's visit to the Foe of Ibsen
‘I had now the honour of being admitted every day to the company of Daae and his friends, and it was clearly explained to me that they formed a compact and still influential body of resistance to the subversive policy of Björnson, Sverdrup and the terrible peasant Jaabsek, whom they regarded with peculiar apprehension.
Hans Christian Andersen had given me a note of introduction to Björnson,...
From the play "The Glove"
Svova has discovered that Alf, to whom she is engaged, has previously had relations with another woman; she has consequently determined to break off the engagement, and the following is a portion of a conversation she holds with her Uncle Nordan.
NORDAN: Come here and sit down. Or dare you not enter on an investigation? SVOVA: Yes, I dare! (She comes and sits down.) NORDAN: You suppose this is a...
April 2011
9 posts
Björnson and his Christianity
“When a crisis in the world of thought and religion was brought about by the new theories of natural science in the seventies, Björnson was carried away by the new movement, which shook the ground on which he based his faith. His psalms of that period show how his mind was torn asunder, what a struggle it cost him to tear himself from the soil in which his poetry had been so strongly rooted, and...
Tea, darling?
“Most of the play is pretty; some of it is beautiful; all of it has a vague distinction. But its fine-drawn, capricious scenes are matter for amiable gossip over tea-tables rather than serious discussion… We can say this without abating our appreciation of the high value of the totality of Björnson’s artistic achievement, now extending over some fifty years. The translation is...
A characteristic story of Björnson
“The recent Congress of the Scandinavian Press, at Christiania, was a very important affair, including receptions by King Oscar and the Municipality of Christiania, and Björnson and Ibsen had both been invited to take part in it. Neither, however, put in an appearance. Ibsen wrote a polite letter explaining that his old age prevented him from accepting the invitation. Björnson was not so...
The irreconcilables
”Scandinavian writers, therefore, have taken two directions. One set are the fighters, the irreconcilables, and irony and satire are the chief means they emply in writing their winged words. Ibsen is the great representative of this class, and others are Björnson, Strindberg, Skram, Christian Elster, Kjelland, the Lefflers, and Garborg…”
Anonymous, ‘The Literary Week’, The Academy,...
Futurama
“What we want in the future is a literature which will make men better.”
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson quoted in William Henry Schofield, ‘Personal impressions of Björnson and Ibsen’, Atlantic Monthly, Boston:1898
Modern times
“Magnhild is a victim of that morbid egotism to which the women of Norwegian novels are usually a prey. She has the customary inability to accept the hard facts of lige and make the best of them.
She lives among the usual throng of monsters, mental or physical, who are sketched with Björnson’s painful and perhaps inartistic minuteness. The actions of the various characters in the story are...
Oh, Gosse
“Space is wanting to do justice here to the little novel of Kaptejn Mansana, a story of passion and adventure from the last phase of Italian history. It has all the delicacy and beauty of those early stories by which Björnson attracted to himself European attention, but it surpasses these, it seems to me, in truth and vigour of delineation, in power over the more subtle and reflex emotions of the...
No longer the soft cheese...
“…its cheerful optimism becomes the winning personality of the hero and his fair lady-love. The book gains genius and charm, too, from its skilful presentation of peasant reserve and innate shyness. The correspondence of Eyvind[sic] during his sojourn at the agricultural college is at once extremely amusing and strangely pathetic. His letters awaken within us a profound astonishment that...
Wuthering Fjords?
“The first part has an unintermittent imaginative intensity, a Rembrandt-like breadth of literary chiaroscuro, and a vigorous realism of that relentless kid which of late has exercised such a fascinations over both writers and readers; and it leaves the impression of immense activity.
In the remainder of the book this creative energy is put into harness and made to drag a heavy chariot, or rather...
March 2011
9 posts
Neither a Milton, nor a Dante, nor a Goethe be
“With Björnson, however, begins the true Gothic school, about which Tegner (the Matthew Arnold of the North) blundered so beautifully. He is content with the simplest elements, yet takes care to assimilate them exquisitely. He is not a Milton, capable of producing a Christian epic; nor a Dante, capable of contructing and all-embracing allegory of personal suffering; nor a Goethe, capable of...
Bite me, Dostoievsky
“With all due admiration for Dostoievsky and the ablest of his confrères among the pessimists, I cannot but think it would be a better sign if Björnstjerne Björnson were to become the vogue. It is not so much a question of optimism versus pessimism as of perfect sanity of mind and body against baffling weariness, disease and despair. We have much to learn from a writer such as Dostoievsky: perhaps...
Turn northwind, in the footsteps of Teufelsdrochk!
“While German literature darkens under the malignant star of Deutschthum, while French Art sickening of its long diesase crawls like a Leper through the light and wholesome world, while all over the European continent one wan influence or another asserts its despair-engendering sway over books and men, whither shall a bewildered student fly for one deep breath of pure air and wholesome...
King and Country
“There he lay, the greatest the North has ever known, the King of Life on the journey of death, resting on the improvised couch as if on a bed of state. We were grouped around him – only a few intimate Danish friends, together with Norway’s Ambassador, who had come to wait on him in order to pay his country’s respects. The Ambassador, a highly gifted and distinguished lawyer, bent respectfully...
Ask Gosse
“And out of this young and sturdy nation two writers have arisen who wear laurels on their brows and are smiled on by Apollo. Björnson is well known, by this time, to many Englishmen; he represents the happy buoyant side of the life of his fatherland; he is what one would naturally expect a Norwegian author to be – rough, manly, unpolished, a young Titan rejoicing in his animal spirits. Ibsen, on...
On marriage
“He [Björnson] distinguishes between a formal and a real marriage, and suggests that if the social union is founded on falsehood, it should be broken as soon as possible”
Edmund Gosse, preface to Synnöve Solbakken. London: Heinemann 1895
Eulogy
“With the vigour of giant forefathers in his veins, Björnstjerne Björnson, ever a fighter, has for months made a valiant stand against death. But even the mightiest chieftain must at last take what the sagas call his bane-wound; and at last the brave white head lies low.
Europen literature has suffered no such loss since the death of Victor Hugo. Greater men have there been in this department or...
A spade by any other name...
“My work is my life; the more work I have in hand the happier I am. Music is my amusement, and digging is my recreation. You smile when I say digging is my recreation; but it is so. Your Gladstone fells oaks; I dig with a spade, and I am much prouder of having my name on a spade than in a book.”
Björnstjerne Björnson -as quoted by Mrs. Alec Tweedie in ‘Henrik Ibsen and Björnstjerne Björnson’,...
Mrs. Alec Tweedie visits Christiania
“Within a few hours of our arrival in Christiania the hotel servant came to tell us someone wanted to speak to us through the telephone… ‘Have you arrived?’ called a cheery voice in English, which we at once recognised as Dr. Fridtjof Nansen’s. ‘Yes, and very tired from the over-land and over-ice journey of 1300 miles.’ ‘Please don’t be tired–rest a bit, and come to a party at my...
February 2011
4 posts
Adulthood
I: I don’t know what’s going on with me, for the first time ever I’m absolutely loving winter and feel an incredible urge to interact with nature. I must be going mad!
He: You’re becoming an adult, Susanne.
I: (Feeling chuffed)
Decadence and Björnson
You may have heard of a man called Aubrey Beardsley… well, my thesis advisor tipped me off about this frontispiece which he did for the English translation of Björnson’s ‘Over Ævne’ (Pastor Sang) in 1893. Interestingly enough it positions Björnson very far from the Norwegian peasant tales which at first made him noticed in the UK. Very interesting indeed.
October 2010
1 post
Sunsets and lutefisk
Sometimes it’s nice to know that you can escape the craziness of city life and spend a peaceful evening in the country with dad. Mounds of perfectly succulent lutefisk for dinner followed by a walk by the lake at sunset. The night frost beginning to set in, nipping at your nose and colouring your cheeks, the sun setting behind the hills and colouring the world. Red, gold, blue. Stunning.
August 2010
3 posts
Top searches
I love checking stats to see what people have searched for to reach my blog. Today’s top search keywords are alcoholic coma and moose love. LOL
Caravaggio, Rubens
A great pannacotta totters and wobbles like a Rubensesque woman on five inch stillettos. Gorgeous! -Matt Preston
at Tate Britain
Overheard, little boy and woman (mum?) looking at John Everett Millais’ Ophelia “Why is that lady lying in the water?” “Umm…she’s swimming!” “No she isn’t, because she’s not moving her legs like this,” (demonstrates) “and she isn’t moving her arms like this!” (demonstrates again) “…”
May 2010
1 post
This will make you smile!
One of my very first really amazing internet experiences was the Hampster dance ca. 1999. The original site has since been corrupted by corporate greed, but browsing the wikipedia article on it I found a mention of this page where the amazing hampster dance is preserved in its original form. I am overcome with joy and joyness.
The Hampster Dance
April 2010
2 posts
By the way
…just in case it wasn’t perfectly clear: of course we didn’t make it to London. Not only did we miss Sam’s birthday, we missed the whole weekend and the book fair on which we’d based the whole issue of the magazine. Emergency /Plan B meeting tonight went ok but still depressed. BAH
Defeat
It is becoming more and more apparent that the hope I’ve held on to that we’d make it to the book fair somehow, is futile. Our souls are dark, dark places of much anguish at the moment. On the other hand, Iceland and its skies look quite pretty. (Too bad, they really don’t need this after everything they’ve been through in the last couple of years…)
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March 2010
5 posts
Rain day!
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I’m so glad it’s raining today! We’ll finally get rid of some of that pestilent snow that has been obstructing traffic (and hence, life) since 2009. I’m so happy I feel like singing (and dancing!)
(The forecast for tomorrow promises 7 C and sunny.)
Breakfast therapy
I am of the conviction that some days are simply not meant to be spent in a conscious state. Especially the ones where you wake up and can’t feel your head, your hands, your feet, your tummy (except for a gnawing sensation deep inside there somewhere that something is terribly, terribly wrong) and your eyes have no hope in Tartaros of ever opening… But modern living means that no days...
Bright grey
[singlepic id=1169 w=605 h= float=center] Grey envelops the world today. It is everywhere and in everything: the air, the streets, the buildings, myself. All coloured grey by this mist that has settled over the lovely town of Oslo. The past few days have been so stunning with clear blue skies and the winter melting away in streams of cold, sparkling water. One good thing about the mist, I...
Good Morning!
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Oh my goodness, the sun is back! I am dancing with joy!
Tea time!
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C and I are throwing a champagne tea party at Kielland House this coming weekend for all the lovely girlies that we never get to see now that we are all either grown up with grown up jobs or completely immersed in literary theory and criticism up to our ears. I am so excited I can barely stand to wait the five whole days until the event.
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February 2010
1 post
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
As it turns out, working steady hours and getting into a daily routine really agrees with me! I am reverting back into my ‘original state’ as a morning person, early bird, call it what you like but I’m there, I’m up at six and I’m not bothered by it (except on the [not so very rare] occasions that I’ve been out the night before, but even then I’m up early...
January 2010
3 posts
Immense happiness
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Winter Kitten
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This has been the most amazing winter in seven years. Even the cat agrees it’s wonderful. As long as he gets to stay on the right side of the windows.
New Year Walk
I spent the second day of the new decade outside in the lovely but freezing weather, on a walk up to Grefsenkollen where there is a restaurant and a magnificent view of Oslo and the fjord. I’ve lovely hot roses in my cheeks from the cold and I feel just wonderfully tired. Time for a cup of tea and a glass of sherry: a perfect ending to a perfect day!
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December 2009
6 posts
Old Year
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The snow fell down
..from my French balcony
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Advent
Isn’t it lovely? Just washed the curtains and all mouldings in my flat. Feels fantastic! And then a couple of Christmas Anchovies on a rye crisp bread for lunch… Simply heavenly.
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Mummy & Me
One of the joys of being not quite an adult yet is being able to go home to the parents’ house to use the washing machine. Six loads of washing and much mummy-pampering later I return to my own ‘home’ feeling ten years younger. Or maybe 24 years and a few months, as when this picture was taken…
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Ten things that beat writing my exam paper
(in no particular order)
1.Baking cupcakes
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2. Drinking lots and lots of coffee
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3. Sleeping
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4. Taking my temperature (in hopes that it’s going down so my brain will start working)
5. Reading novels and 6. Reading books about novels
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This Is The Suckiest Winter EVER
But the view from inside can be nice.
By day:
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By night:
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…and in the spirit of Christmas I’ve even put up a decoration
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