JONAS LIE AND SARA LIDMAN (1874-1974)

JONAS LIE

Novelist whose goal was to reflect in his writings the nature, the folk life and the social spirit of his native Norway.

He is considered to be ONE OF THE FOUR GREAT ONES of the 19th-century Norwegian literature together with Ibsen, Bjorson and Alexander Kielland.

With much encouragement from his wife and with her collaboration Lie wrote his first novel Den fremsynte eller billeder fra Nordland (1870, The Visionary or Pictures from Nordland) after having suffered total bankruptcy.

It was followed by the first Norwegian story of the sea and of business life Tremasteren "Fremtiden" (1872, The Barque "Future").

Two novels from his Naturalistic period are Livsslaven (1883, One of Life´s Slaves) which tells of the social misfortunes of a boy born out of wedlock and Familien paa Gilje (1883, The Family at Gilje) a novel that deals with the position of women, the most popular question of his day. The Family combining psychological insight with implicit social criticism gives a vivid picture of domestic life in a mountain-valley community in the 1840s and is a classic of Norwegian literature.

Toward the end of his life wrote two volumes of fairy tales called Trold (1891-92, some translated as Weird Tales from Northern Seas).


SARA LIDMAN

One of the most acclaimed and widely read novelists of the post-World War II generation of Swedish writers and ONE OF THE TWO OR THREE FORESMOST Swedish woman novelists.

She had immediate success with her first two novels Tjärdalen (1953, The Tar Still) and Hjortronlander (1955, Cloudberry Land) both of which deal with the rural life of Västerbotten where she spent her childhood and youth.

Another well-known work is Regnspiran (1958, The Rain Bird).

In the 1960s she visited Africa and produced two novels protesting the oppression there of blacks.

Samtal i Hanoi (1966, Conversation in Hanoi) is a record of her trip to Vietnam and Fäglarna i Nam Dinh (1972, Birds in Nam Dinh) covers the Vietnam War.

Other works include Gruva (1968, The Mine) about miners in Svappovaara, the folksaga Marta, Marta (1970) and Din tjänare hör (1977) a novel about the inhabitants of an isolated Norrland community.