majority distinguished themselves also in prose. But the period was not one in which Swedish prose shone with any special lustre. The first prosaist of the time was, without question, the novelist, Karl Jonas Ludvig Almqvist, Almqvist. (q.v.; 1793–1866), around whose extraordinary personal character and career a mythical romance has already collected (see Almqvist). He was encyclopaedic in his range, although his stories preserve most charm; on whatever subject he wrote his style was always exquisite. Fredrik Cederborgh (1784–1835) revived the comic novel in his Uno von Trasenberg and Ottar Tralling. The historical novels of Gumaelius have already been alluded to. Swedish history supplied themes for the romances of Count Per Georg Sparre (1790–1871) and of Gustaf Henrik Mellin (1803–1876). But all these writers Fredrika Bremer. sink before the sustained popularity of the Finnish Bremen poet Fredrika Bremer (q.v.; 1801–1865), whose stories reached farther into the distant provinces of the world of letters than the writings of any other Swede except Tegnér. She was preceded by Sofia Margareta Zelow, afterwards Baroness von Knorring (1797–1848), who wrote a long series of aristocratic novels.
A polemical writer of great talent was Magnus Jakob Crusenstople (1795–1865), of whose work it has been said that “it is not history and it is not fiction, but something brilliant between the one and the other.” As an historian of Swedish literature Per Wieselgren (1800–1877) composed a valuable work, and made other valuable contributions to history and bibliography. In history we meet again with the great name of Geijer, with that of Jonas Hallenberg (1748–1834), and with that of Anders Magnus Strinnholm (1786–1862), whose labours in the field of Swedish history were extremely valuable. Geijer and Strinnholm prepared the way for the most popular of all Swedish historians, Anders Fryxell (1795–1881), whose famous Berättelser ur svenska historien appeared in parts during a space of nearly sixty years, and awakened a great interest in Swedish history and legend.
In 1850 the first poet of Sweden, without a rival, was Johan Ludvig Runeberg (q.v.; 1804–1877), whose reputation rivals that of Tegnér. Bernhard Elis Malmström (1816–1865), who was a professor of aesthetics at the university of Upsala, was the author of many important books on artistic and literary history, notably a monograph on Franzén. Runeberg. His poetry, although small in volume, gives him a place beside Runeberg. A volume of elegies, Angelika (1840), established his fame, and two volumes of poems published in 1845 and 1847 contain a number of ballads, romances and lyrics which keep their hold on Swedish literature. He was an exact and discriminating critic, and inclined to severity in his strictures on the romanticists. The other leading verse-writers were Karl Vilhelm Böttiger (1807–1878), the son-in-law and biographer of Tegnér, who, in addition to his lyrical poetry, chiefly of the sentimental kind, wrote an admirable series of monographs on Swedish men of letters; Johan Börjesson (1790–1866), the last of the Phosphorists, author of various romantic dramas; Vilhelm August Detlof von Braun (1813–1860), a humorous lyrist; “Talis Qualis,” whose real name was Karl Vilhelm August Strandberg (1818–1877); Oscar Patrick Sturzen-Becker (1811–1869), better known as “Orvar Odd,” a lyrical poet who was also the author of a series of amusing sketches of everyday life; and August Teodor Blanche (1811–1868), the popular dramatist Blanche produced a number of farces and comedies which were announced as pictures from real life. His pieces abound in comic situations, and some of them, Magister Bläckstadius (1844), Rika Morbror (1845), En tragedi i Vimmerby (1848) and others, maintain their reputation. Fredrik August Dahlgren (1816–1895) gained a great reputation as a dramatist by his national opera, Vermländingarne (1846). He is also the author of translations from Shakespeare and Calderon, and of considerable historical works. Other notable plays of the period were the En Komedi of J. C. Jolin (1818–1884) and the Bröllopet på Ulfåsa (1865) of Frans Hedberg (1828–1908). But Runeberg is the only great poetic name of this period.
In prose there was not even a Runeberg. The best novelist of the time was Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807–1892). The art was sustained by Karl Anton Wetterbergh (1804–1889), who called himself “Onkel Adam,” by August Blanche the dramatist, and by Marie Sofie Schwartz (1819–1892). Fru Schwartz (née Birat) wrote novels demonstrating the rights of the poor against the rich, of which The Man of Birth and the Woman of the People (Eng. trans., 1868) is a good example. Lars Johan Hierta (1801–1872) was the leading journalist, Johan Henrik Thomander, bishop of Lund (1798–1865), the greatest orator, Matthias Alexander Castrén (1813–1852) a prominent man of science, and Karl Gustaf af Forsell (1783–1848), the principal statistician of this not very brilliant period. Elias Lönnrot (q.v.; 1802–1884) is distinguished as the Finnish professor who discovered and edited the Kalevala.
The most popular poet at the close of the 19th century was the patriotic Finn, Zakris Topelius (q.v.; 1818–1898). Of less importance were Karl Herman Sätherberg (1812–1897), a romantic poet who was also a practising physician of distinction; the elegiac poet Johan Nybom (1815–1889); and the poet, novelist, and dramatist Frans Hedberg (d. 1908), who in his old age made many concessions to the modern taste. The posthumous poems of the bishop of Strängnäs, Adam Teodor Strömberg (1820–1889), were collected by Wirsén, and created some sensation. A typical academician was the poet, antiquary and connoisseur, Nils Fredrik Sander (1828–1900). The improvisatory of Gluntarne, Gunnar Wennerberg (q.v.; 1817–1901) survived as a romantic figure of the past. Still older was the poetess Wilhelmina Nordström (1815–1902), long a schoolmistress in Finland. The aesthetic critic and poet, Carl Rupert Nyblom (1832–1907), continued the studies, translations and original pieces which had created him a reputation as one of the most accomplished general writers of Sweden. His wife, Helene Nyblom, was well known as a novelist. A. T. Gellerstedt (b. 1836), an architect of position, was known as a poet of small range but of very fine quality. Among writers of the earlier generation were Achatius Johan Kahl (1794–1888), the biographer of Tegnér; Per Erik Bergfalk (1798–1890), the critic and supporter of Geijer; the distinguished historian and academician, Karl Johan Schlyter (1795–1888) and the historical writers, Fredrik Ferdinand Carlson (1811–1887), Vilhelm Erik Svedelius (1816–1889), and Martin Weibull (1835–1902). The work of King Oscar II. (q.v.) himself had given him a worthy place among the intellectuals of the country. But the interest of such veteran reputations is eclipsed by the more modern school.
The serenity of Swedish literature was rudely shaken about 1884 by an incursion of realism and by a stream of novel and violent imaginative impulse. The controversy between the old and the new schools raged so fiercely, and The Modern Movement. the victory has remained so obviously in the hands of the latter, that it is difficult, especially for a foreigner, to hold the balance perfectly even. It will therefore be best in this brief sketch to say that the leader of the elder school was Viktor Rydberg (q.v.; 1828–1895) and that he was ably supported by Carl Snoilsky (q.v.; 1841–1904) who at the beginning of the 20th century was the principal living poet of the bygone generation in Sweden. Snoilsky was prominent for the richness of his lyrical style, his cosmopolitan interests and his great width of culture. Carl David af Wirsén (b. 1842) distinguished himself, and made himself very unhappy, by his dogged resistance to every species of renaissance in Swedish thought, or art, or literature. A man of great talent, he was a violent reactionary, and suffered from the consequences of an attitude so unpopular. He found a vehicle for his criticism in the Post och Inrikes Tidningar, of which he was editor. He published his Lyrical Poems in 1876; New Lyrical Poems in 1880; Songs and Sketches in 1885.
Four influences may be mentioned as having acted upon young Sweden, and as having combined to release its literature from the old hard-bound conventions. These are English philosophy in the writings of Herbert Spencer, French realism
