Lie, JONAS

Lie, JONAS, the most popular novelist of Norway, was born at Eker, near Drammen, on 6th November 1833. He studied law at Christiania, and practised as an advocate for a few years at Kongsvinger; but at length he abandoned his profession for literature. His novels give admirable realistic pictures of life in Norway, especially of the fisher-folk of the west coast. His popularity is due to the sunshine of kindness and delicate poetry that lights up his books, to the healthy tone of his writing, his fidelity to nature, and his genial humour. His best novels include The Visionary (1870, trans. 1894), which rapidly ran through half-a-dozen editions; The Three-master 'Future' (1872); The Pilot and his Wife (1874; Eng. trans. 1877), of which five editions were exhausted in the first year; Go on (1882); A Prisoner for Life (1883); The Family at Gilje (1883), his best novel; A Whirlpool (1884); The Commander's Daughters (1886); the excellent Married Life (1887); and Maisa Jons (1889), the life of a Christiania seamstress. Jonas Lie, moreover, has published two collections of Short Stories (3d ed. 1880, and 1885), a volume of popular Poems (1866), and a successful comedy, Grabow's Cat (1880).