Bremer, FREDRIKA

Bremer, FREDRIKA, the well-known Swedish novelist, was born at Tuorla near Abo, in Finland, 17th August 1801; and was brought up at Arsta, about 20 miles from Stockholm. At seventeen she was taken for her health a tour through Germany, Switzerland, and France. Soon after, the poetry of Schiller set her young imagination aglow, and the restlessness of her temperament drove her to writing—the only outlet for her energy that was open to her. In 1828 appeared the first volume of her Sketches of Everyday Life, but the second volume, The H. Family (1833; Eng. trans. 1844), first revealed her power. From this time she devoted herself to writing stories that quickly became popular in translations far beyond the bounds of Sweden, and she varied her literary labour by long journeys in Italy, England, the United States, Greece, Palestine, which supplied the materials for her Homes of the New World (1853), and Life in the Old World (1862), full of fine descriptions of scenery and vivid pictures of social life, with sound views on political and moral questions. The admirable translations of Mary Howitt had preceded her in America as well as England, and insured her an equally warm welcome on both sides of the Atlantic. On her return to Sweden she gave herself up to philanthropy, but more particularly to the education and emancipation of women, and the consequent propagandist character of her later novels, Bertha and Father and Daughter (1859), was detrimental in no small degree to their literary value. Her religious views she set forth in her Morning Watches (1842). She spent her last years at Arsta, and died there 31st December 1865. Her Life and Letters were edited by her sister in 1868, and were at once translated into English and German. She has been called, and not inaptly, the Jane Austen of Sweden. She resembled the English novelist in delicacy, shrewdness, and love of quiet domestic incident, but fell far short of that subtlety in simplicity which is the secret of her charm, and that marvellous insight into women, if not men, on which depends her power. Of Miss Bremer's stories perhaps the most perfect is The Neighbours (1837; Eng. 1844). The Diary, The President's Daughters, Brothers and Sisters, Strife and Peace, and Scenes in Dalecarlia are only less popular.