Encouraged by the great and growing popularity of Scandinavian
literature in this country, I venture to submit to public judgment this
humble essay towards an English presentment of some of the charming
novelettes of Alexander L. Kielland, a writer who takes rank among the
foremost exponents of modern Norse thought. Although these short stories
do not represent the full fruition of the author's genius, they yet
convey a fairly accurate conception of his literary personality, and of
the bold realistic tendency which is so strikingly developed in his
longer novels.
Kielland's style is polished, lucid, and incisive. He does not waste
words or revel in bombastic diffuseness. Every phrase of his narrative
is a definite contribution towards the vivification of his realistic
effects. His concise, laconic periods are pregnant with deep meaning,
and instinct with that indefinable Norse essence which almost eludes the
translator--that vague something which specially lends itself to the
treatment of weird or pathetic situations.
In his pre-eminence as a satirist, Kielland resembles Thackeray. His
satire, although keen, is always wholesome, genial, and good-humoured.
Kielland's longer novels are masterly delineations of Norwegian
provincial life and character, and his vivid individualization of his
native town of Stavanger finds few parallels in fiction.
In conclusion, the writer hopes that this modest publication may help to
draw the attention of the cultured British public to another of the
great literary figures of the North.