(1849-1892)
Anne Charlotte Leffler Edgren, afterwards Duchess of Cajanello, was
born in Stockholm, October 1st, 1849. She was the most prominent among
contemporary women writers of Sweden, and won for herself an eminent
position in the world of letters, not only for the truthfulness of her
delineation of life, but for the brilliancy of her style and her skill
in using her material. The circumstances of her early life were
comfortable and commonplace. She was the only daughter of a Swedish
rector, and from her mother, also the daughter of a clergyman, she
inherited her literary tendencies. From her parents and her three
devoted brothers she received every encouragement, but with wise
foresight they restrained her desire to publish her early writings;
and it was not until her talent was fully developed that her first
book, a collection of stories entitled 'Haendelsvis' (By Chance),
appeared in 1869, under the pseudonym of "Carlot." In 1872 she was
married to Gustav Edgren, secretary of the prefecture in Stockholm;
and though fitting and harmonious, this marriage was undoubtedly one
of convenience, brought about by the altered circumstances of her
life.
In 1873 she published the drama 'Skadespelerskan' (The Actress), which
held the stage in Stockholm for an entire winter, and this was
followed by 'Pastorsadjunkten' (The Curate), 1876, and 'Elfvan' (The
Elf), 1880, the latter being even more than usually successful. Her
equipment as a dramatist was surprisingly slender, as until the time
of her engagement to Mr. Edgren she had never visited the theatre, and
necessarily was absolutely ignorant of the technique of the stage.
Nevertheless, her natural dramatic instincts supplied the defects of a
lack of training, and her plays met with almost universal success. The
theme of all her dramas, under various guises, is the same,--the
struggle of a woman's individuality with the conventional environment
of her life. Mrs. Edgren herself laments that she was born a woman,
when nature had so evidently intended her for a man.
Her first work to be published under her own name was in 1882,--a
collection of tales entitled 'Ur Lifvet' (From Life), which were
received with especial applause. Her works were translated into
Danish, Russian, and German, and she now became widely known as one of
the most talented of Swedish writers. In 1883 appeared a second volume
of 'From Life'; and still later, in 1889, yet another under the same
title. These later stories betrayed a boldness of thought and
expression not before evinced, and placed the author in the ranks of
the radicals. The drama 'Sanna Kvinnor' (Ideal Women) appeared in
1883; 'Huru Man Goer Godt' (How We do Good) in 1885; and in 1888, in
collaboration with Sonya Kovalevsky, 'Kampen foer Lyckan' (The Struggle
for Happiness).
In company with her brother, Professor Mittag-Leffler, she attended a
Mathematical Congress in Algiers, in the early part of the year 1888;
and upon the return journey through Italy she made the acquaintance of
Signor Pasquale del Pezzo, subsequently Duke of Cajanello, a
mathematician and friend of her brother, and professor in the
University of Naples. Mrs. Edgren was married to the Duke of Cajanello
in 1890, after the dissolution of her marriage with Mr. Edgren. After
this event she published a romance which attracted a great deal of
attention, called 'Kvinlighet och Erotik' (Womanliness and Erotics),
1890, and among others the drama 'Familjelycka' (Domestic Happiness),
and 'En Raeddende Engel' (A Rescuing Angel), with which last she
achieved her greatest dramatic success. Her last work was a biography
of her intimate friend Sonya Kovalevsky. While in the midst of her
literary labors, and in the fullness of her powers, she died suddenly
at Naples, October 21st, 1893.
The subjects of her writings are the deepest questions of life. Her
special theme is the relation between men and women, and in her
studies of the question she has given to the world a series of types
of wonderful vividness and accuracy. The life that she knows best is
the social life of the upper classes; and in all her work, but
particularly in her dramas, she treats its problems with a masculine
vigor and strength. Realism sometimes overshadows poetry, but the
faithfulness of her work is beyond question.