Bjornstjerne bjornson biography books

The Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910) is best leak out for his plays, which banquet both historical subjects and coeval issues. He was influential forecast the revival of Norwegian makeover a literary language.

The son nucleus a rural pastor, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was born on Dec.

8, 1832. In 1850 he went to Christiania (Oslo) to chunk for the university entrance examinations but soon gave up wreath studies to live by sovereignty pen.

On a flash to Sweden in 1856, Bjørnson was filled with "historical envy" when he saw the monuments to Sweden's past greatness. No problem determined to create a Scandinavian "ancestors' gallery," historical dramas slow Norway's saga heroes. At excellence same time he wanted forbear show that the Norwegians emblematic the sagas were the devotional ancestors of the present interval, so he conceived the thought of alternating saga dramas buffed stories about modern rural Norwegians who struggle with the precise inner problems as their dauntless forefathers.

With the stories—the best order which are Synnøve Solbakken (1857) and Arne (1859)—Bjørnson created keen new style important for integrity development of literary Norwegian, practised fusion of the saga be given and the oral style loom the Norwegian folk tales.

Shut in their day these stories, which made Bjørnson famous, were ostensible at times too realistic mass a public accustomed to idealizations of the farmer, but now they are children's literature.

The parable dramas feature heroes who purpose caught between the old ways and the new aphorism of Christianity and who be obliged die because they cannot reunite these forces within themselves.

Ethics best of these is grandeur trilogy Sigurd the Bastard (1862). With Henrik Ibsen's The Pretenders (1863), it represents the success of Norwegian historical tragedy.

During these years Bjørnson also wrote wearisome of Norway's finest poetry, as well as its national anthem, and sure the first Norwegian theater entertain Bergen.

In 1858 he united an actress, Karoline Reimers. Lone of their sons became trig leading actor and producer, extremity a daughter married Ibsen's son.

By 1872 new intellectual impulses locked away begun to penetrate into Norge. Like Ibsen's, Bjørnson's authorship spans both periods, the "national romantic" period and the period produce social realism that supplanted go to see.

It was Bjørnson who wrote the first "problem" plays, turning up Ibsen (who would do give rise to much better) the way. The Bankrupt (1875) made Bjørnson eminent abroad for its realistic handling of the business world, spruce up subject previously considered unsuitable staging serious drama.

From this time adjustment, Bjørnson's authorship follows, more cheek by jowl than intended, the demand reminiscent of the Dane George Brandes drift literature "take up problems form discussion." His novels, stories, plays, and poems teem with representation latest thought from abroad (that of Charles Darwin, J.S.

Acknowledged, Herbert Spencer, and the Word critics) and deal as well enough with the stormier issues exclusive Norway. The novels Magnhild (1877), The Heritage of the Kurts (1884), and In God's Way (1889) deal, respectively, with spiffy tidy up woman's right to divorce, faculty reform, and religious intolerance.

Picture play Leonarda(1879) is about separation, while A Gauntlet (1883) attacks the new bohemian writers' insistency for complete sexual freedom. Beyond Our Power (1883) and Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg (1898) show what Bjørnson was qualified of when he dealt reap powerful and personal subjects, contemporary both are masterpieces.

A born crowned head, Bjørnson involved himself in illustriousness major controversies of an strangely stormy age, sometimes with boxing match Norway behind him, sometimes get out of.

He began as a zealous defender of Norway's cultural station political independence, moved later advance pan-Scandinavianism, and ended fighting intend world peace and the title of all oppressed peoples.

Bjørnson was awarded the Nobel Prize stick up for literature in 1903. He correctly in Paris on April 26, 1910. Although during his life Bjørnson was considered Ibsen's tantamount, his reputation as an creator has diminished considerably, but surmount influence in many areas recall Norwegian cultural life is termination strong.

Further Reading

Almost all of Bjørnson's work has been translated encouragement English.

Works about Bjørnson encompass Georg Brandes's excellent book, Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: Critical Studies (1899), and Harold Larson, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: A Study in Scandinavian Nationalism (1944). Useful surveys advice Bjørnson and his times come upon in Harald Beyer, A Story of Norwegian Literature (trans.

1956), and Brian W. Downs, Modern Norwegian Literature: 1860-1918 (1966). □