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4.10.2014
1903
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(Norway, 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910)
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1903 was awarded to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity
of its spirit".
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903. He was the third person to receive it. Henrik Ibsen was never awarded the prize. Posterity has chosen to regard this as a proof of the unimportance of literary prizes. The contemporaries of the two writers held a different view: Ibsen and Bjørnson were twin stars in the northern hemisphere, like Castor and Pollux, and they both deserved the prize. Possibly Bjørnson deserved it more, as he came closest to fulfilling the intentions of the testator regarding works written in "an idealistic spirit." This is particularly applicable if the word "works" is applied in its broadest sense, also embracing Bjørnson's championship -- through the international press -- of persecuted individuals and oppressed nations, and of his efforts on behalf of peace and international justice.
By Edvard Beyer
But both in his own age and today, it is Bjørnson's literary works that single him out for greatness. In the words of the eminent Danish critic, Georg Brandes, he was "by the richness of his original talent" superior among the writers of the Scandinavian countries; "no flight was too lofty" for his genius. Ibsen was a born dramatist, though in his early years he also wrote poetry. He was by inclination a lyric poet, but throughout his life he also wrote stories, novels and plays. Right from the beginning it was Bjørnson who led the way, rather than his four-years senior friend and rival. It was Bjørnson who created the modern, Nordic historical drama, Ibsen's "The Pretenders" being an example of this genre. (In this play Bjørnson is a model for King Haakon.) It was also Bjørnson who wrote the first realistic contemporary plays in Scandinavia; Ibsen followed, and surpassed him with "Pillars of Society" and "A Doll's House." Bjørnson's plays were those that were first performed outside Scandinavia. They were a resounding success in the great theaters of Germany and Austria, thus clearing the way to the world arena for Ibsen's later dramatic works.
The Peasant Tales
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was born on 8 December 1832 at Kvikne in the upper part of the Østerdal valley in eastern Norway, where his father was a clergyman. When Bjørnson was five the family moved to Nesset in Romsdalen, in the west of the country. After completing secondary school in the town of Molde, and a course for the Artium examination (roughly equivalent to British A-levels), in Oslo, Bjørnson tried his hand at journalism. He wrote literary criticisms and short stories in a bold, refreshing style and in the autumn of 1857 made his debut with "Synnøve Solbakken," the first of his peasant tales. Not only was this his artistic breakthrough; it also became, and still is, his best-loved book. If one compares it with other Nordic novels and short stories of the period, it is easy to see just how strongly it represents a new narrative art. It is terse, concentrated, verbal in its choice of words and syntax, daring in its imagery. The Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian folk tales and perhaps Hans Andersen too have influenced the style, but their main contribution has been in helping Bjørnson to find his own literary style. It bears the hallmark of Norway in its choice of words and syntax, distinguishing it clearly from the written Danish language which was the norm in Norway at the time. Bjørnson had already defined one of his bearing themes: the powerful forces which can lead men astray if they are not put to the service of a superior goal. There is a strong strain of romantic idyll in the story, but also an element of what Bjørnson, two years previously, had called "the naturalistic spirit of the age," which was apparent in "the craving for truth rather than beauty."
During the next few years Bjørnson alternated between writing narratives set against a rural background, and saga plays, a procedure he referred to as "crop rotation." His reasons for this were both literary and political. As he said 50 years later; "We had learned to understand that the linguistic tone of the sagas still survived among our farmers, and that their life resembled the sagas. Our people's life should be built upon its history, and the farmers were to be the basis of the nation." Bjørnson wrote alternately of the saga figures and the farmers of his time, who had certain character traits in common; a restrained power, an unquenchable urge for adventure, talents in search of a goal, stubborn pride and a shy taciturnity, which keeps others at arm's length. But there is a major difference. In the peasant tales the heroes learn to control their powers, supported by love and their Christian faith. In the saga plays, the atmosphere is more rugged, the sav-agery greater, and the heroes come to a tragic end.
The most important of the rustic novels after "Synnøve Solbakken" are "Arne" (1859) and "A Happy Boy" (1860). In "Arne" the main character is more complex than in the other books. Arne is a gifted, artistic man, but a weak one; torn between an impatient urge to escape from his environment, and his love for all the things that bind him to hearth and home, and to his barren native earth. The book's artistic quality varies. Both the lyrical and the more realistic passages are powerful, but Bjørnson did not quite succeed in harmonizing the two. "A Happy Boy," however, is both cohesive and harmonious. It is an idyllic love story, which also reflects some of the issues of the new age.
The Saga Dramas
The saga drama "Lame Hulda" (1858) was written in Bergen where Bjørnson worked as both theatrical manager, editor and politician from 1857 to 1858. "Lame Hulda" was issued at the same time as Ibsen's "The Warriors at Helgeland." Bjørnson's work appears to draw on the same sources, but the main female character has a more turbulent spiritual make-up than Ibsen's Hjørdis, while the most important man has many of the traits that Bjørnson later expanded upon in "Arne."
The greatest of Bjørnson's saga plays is a vivid, powerful dramatic trilogy, "Sigurd Slembe" (1862) which was issued the year before Ibsen's "The Pretenders," Like Schiller, Bjørnson was intent on letting the present, "the basis from which all springs" be an integral part of the drama. But he also learned something from Shakespeare. One of the central figures in the second part of the play, Harald Jarl, shares some of the traits of Hamlet. The main character resembles Torbjørn, the leading male figure in "Synnøve Solbakken," and also "Arne." The bearing theme is the old one -- though it is amplified through a growing understanding of the "laws of equilibrium" and of the universal. "The young Sigurd is able enough -- and a king's son into the bargain." But he is a slave of his own ungovernable nature and the self-destructive forces within him, and is therefore defeated in the struggle for the throne.
Schiller and Shakespeare also provided some of the impulses to "Mary Queen of Scots" (1863), though Bjørnson's view differs from that which runs through Schiller's drama of the Scottish Queen. She is unable to commit herself totally to any human relationship, and this brings about her downfall, he maintains. Bjørnson puts her into interesting relief against the feeble Darnley on the one side, and the strong and obdurate John Knox on the other. The Shakespearean influence is clearly evident in the dramatic richness and the lyrical and picturesque prose.
New Impulses
The war between Denmark and Germany in 1864 made a deep impression on Ibsen and Bjørnson alike, and in a number of poems Bjørnson expressed his sorrow and indignation over the Danes' lonely stance against a superior force. But he reacted strongly to the violent condemnation and the fanatical consistency in Ibsen's "Brand." On the other hand he was affected by the Danish poet, historian and theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig's democratic propaganda and national preachings, and the tolerance and "joyful Christianity" advocated by Grundtvig left their mark on Bjørnson's play "The Fisher Maiden" 1868. This is a fresh and spirited tale of an imaginative young girl who through a series of conflicts achieves artistic maturity. The style and structure reveal a kinship to the peasant tales, but the realistic description of social background, the frankness and independence of the young girl, and the topical discussion passages show the first traces of "the modern breakthrough" that was to take place in the Scandinavian literature of the 1870s and 1880s.
In his earliest stories and plays, and in newspapers and periodicals as well, Bjørnson published many songs and poems, and he continued to do so for the rest of his life. In 1870 he issued a grand, epic-lyrical cycle "Arnljot Gelline," which deals with a minor character in the Snorre Sturlason saga of Olav Haraldsson, theNorwegian saint-king. Later in the same year came "Poems and Songs," a collection of all the lyrical poems he had so far written. It was later published in new, and expanded versions.
Lyrical Poetry
Bjørnson's lyrical poetry is many-faceted. Among its common features are spontaneity, immediate impact and appeal, simple, unconventional expressive imagery, and a rich variety of rhythmic and musical presentation. Both thematically and formally it is richly nuanced.It embraces love poems and descriptions of nature, historical ballads, patriotic poems, including "Norway thine is our devotion" -- the national anthem of Norway -- as well as political battle songs, commissioned works, commemorative poems, and salutations to great contemporaries. The early songs, including many from the peasant tales, frequently have a light and delicate air, while those written after Bjørnson's first encounter with antiquity -- in the Rome of the early 1860s, and with Goethe's lyrical poetry, often have a more powerful rhythm and plastic visuality
Much of his lyrical output is eminently singable, and many of the poems became national property, not only in Norway, but in Denmark too, and to a certain degree in the other Nordic countries. No other Norwegian poet has had so many of his words put to music by so many composers.
Theatre, Newspapers and Politics
Bjørnson was also theatre manager, editor and active politician in the 1860s. The subsequent ten years of his life were more turbulent than ever. Of particularly bitter nature was the so-called "Signal Feud" after Bjørnson, at Grundtvig's burial, had appealed to his Danish friends to "change signals" and seek reconciliation with the Germans (1872). He himself believed that the external strife indirectly served to benefit his poetry, but at times his political activity sapped all his strength, and he was forced to go abroad to write in peace.
Even before his debut Bjørnson wished to write bourgeois contemporary drama. A stay in Paris in 1863 stimulated this urge,and with "The Newly Married Couple" (1865), virtually a "proverb" in Alfred de Musset's style, he created the first bourgeois problem drama to be written in Scandinavia. With its treatment of a marital problem the play was the first to bring queries and doubt into the "contemporary bourgeoisie" as Edvard Brandes, brother of Georg Brandes, later wrote. Nevertheless, ten years were to elapse before Bjørnson's next contemporary drama was published.
To Rome
In 1872, after he had concluded his "crop rotation" with the peasant tale "The Bridal Dance" and the saga drama "Sigurd Jorsalfar" -- neither of them among the finest of his works -- Bjørnson went to Rome, where he stayed from 1873 to 1875. There he wrote "The Bankrupt" and "The Editor." Both of these had their first showings in Stockholm in 1875, and were published during the same year. They inaugurated the realistic contemporary and problem drama in the Nordic countries. "The Bankrupt" was also an international success. Georg Brandes welcomed it with open arms, claiming that the "two great powers, the present and reality had at last come into their right." Many years later August Strindberg called them "the signal rockets."
In these works too French impulses are visible (Augier and Sardou), but Bjørnson has given them his own special stamp. "The Bankrupt," which puts treacherous business morals at the centre of a dramatic conflict, is characterized, like most of Bjørnson's realistic contemporary plays, by a folksy exuberance, clear character delineation, and vivid scenes.
"The Editor" is based on Bjørnson's own experiences as a politician. It seeks to elevate "the ethical responsibility in politics." It is more original than "The Bankrupt," but not so lively in plot and characterization.
In "Captain Mansana" (1875) where the setting is Italian but the thematics are reminiscent of the peasant tales, the responsibility for Captain Mansana's downfall is put on "unhealthy, unnatural social conditions, which poison society and the human mind." Bjørnson's next drama, the part-realistic part-symbolic and occasionally somewhat obscure "The King," is full of political and sociological dynamite. It challenges the monarchy, the state church, the military establishment and pecuniary power, primarily by way of the King, who is a well-meaning idealist -- while the fanatical republican's intransigence is his own undoing.
In the same year -- 1877 -- came "Magnhild," Bjørnson's first,and perhaps finest realistic novel. In this he trains a spotlight -- two years before Ibsen in "A Doll's House" -- on matrimony, painting a dismal picture of the conventional marriage and indicating divorce as the only sensible solution. At the same time he rejects the romantic-religious concept of "the calling," which he had previously believed in. The human assignation is not single but multi-leaved as he puts it. In "Magnhild" he is somewhat more critical of the peasant community than he had previously been.
Both "The King" and "Magnhild" testify to a strong radicalization of Bjørnson's opinions and attitudes. Like the Grundtvigians he believed that Christianity should be a driving force in the development of political and intellectual freedom. But his disappointment at the Church's deprecatory attitude towards democracy and intellectual freedom gradually led him to doubt its preachings. As far back as 1871 he had read Charles Darwin and in 1877-79 he re-read his works. He also read John Stuart Mill, Hippolyte Taine and the Bible criticism of Ernest Renan and Viktor Rydberg. After considerable soul-searching he openly rejected the church's teachings, but by nature he was, and continued to be, a believer. The doctrine of evolution became his new creed and in his beautiful "Psalms" he extolled his belief in "the eternal Spring of Life."
Both "The King," "Magnhild" and Bjørnson's new religious convictions raised a storm of bitterness. The play "The New System" (1879) is partly inspired by this experience. The disagreement revolves around the basic principles of railway construction, but the real conflict lies between the old and the new, between the reforming zeal and thirst for truth of the young, and the conservatism and authoritarian beliefs of the old. In "Leonarda" (1879) Bjørnson continued, in dramatic form, the debate on marriage and divorce that he initiated in "Magnhild." In this play he shows that the "faithless," divorced woman is led by a higher morality than the bishop himself. But while stressing the value of sensualism, and the right to divorce, if this is necessary, the play also extols the virtues of self-control, self-respect and self-denial. In "A Gauntlet" (1883) Bjørnson, through the character Svava, demands of men the same "purity" that is required of women. This brought him under cross-fire from the clergy on the one side, and from the radicals and the adherents of free-love on the other. It marked the commencement of a heated debate on morality later in the 1880s, when Bjørnson clashed with both August Strindberg and Georg Brandes.
Bjørnson's new religious convictions are apparent both in "Dust," a short story written in 1882, where he attempted to show how inherited religious conceptions make people unfit for life itself and in "Beyond our Power" from 1883, the most compact and concentrated of his dramas.
The priest Sang, has much in common with the trail-blazing figures of his early works, but differs from them in his shining piety and boundless charity. All his aspirations are directed towards religion, and he awaits the miracle that will confirm the faith he proclaims. But even for him the miracle and thus -- according to the play -- Christianity itself are beyond human power. Sang is torn to shreds by his own belief and is literally killed by the disappointment. Bjørnson has succeeded in embodying this powerful and challenging theme within the framework of a realistic contemporary drama. The plot is in itself "fantastic" but amidst the mighty Nordland landscapes it becomes plausible and is supported both by the character portrayals, the lyrical base , and the simple, dramatic structure. The mood swings between faith and doubt, hope and anxiety, humour and the deepest gravity, while the tension mounts towards a summit of breathless expectation when anything can happen. Bjørnson had again challenged popular beliefs. The play was performed in Paris in 1894 but was not presented in Norway and Denmark until 1899.
After the religious drama, Bjørnson again returned to the problem of morality, in a richly coloured novel "The Heritage of the Kurts" from 1884. This is a dramatic family chronicle focusing on the moral responsibility of the individual and society in the light of modern genetics and the doctrine of evolution. In 1889 came "In God's Way," in which religious issues lead to a bitter conflict between two friends, a clergyman and a doctor Only in the light of dearly bought experience do they both realize -- and in particular the priest,who is most in need of it -that "where good people walk, there is God's way." The didactic strain is strongly evident in this book but Bjørnson's humour and narrative zest, as well as his talent for making his characters come alive, carries the reader along with him.
In the 1880s Bjørnson's political involvement reached a peak. He played a prominent part in the Liberal Party's struggle for parliamentarianism in Norway and for expanded Norwegian autonomy within the Swedish/ Norwegian union. After 1890 he moderated his views on the union, devoting more time to the cause of peace, arbitration and the struggle for the persecuted and oppressed. This embraced both nations and individuals -- such as Alfred Dreyfus. Social problems increased in step with the march of industrialization and he strove to find their solution. Bjørnson regarded himself as a socialist, but hoped for a peaceful resolution of the class war.
We encounter much of this attitude in his works from the 1890s. Bjørnson wrote an epic poem "Peace" in 1891 and in "Beyond Human Might" from 1895, he created a large-scale drama about the modern class struggle, believably the first in world literature. The subject is a strike, with the two sides locked in bitter conflict. Despairing workers confront obdurate factory owners. Their ideologies too are totally opposed. Revolutionary, idealistic anarchy is at the one extreme, Nietzschean "Herren-Moral" at the other. The outcome is disaster, but from the ashes rises a dream of reconciliation: "Someone must start by forgiving."
Already in "The Editor" Bjørnson had shown how politicians could become hard and unscrupulous. In a number of his works, such as "Sigurd Slembe" and "Mary Queen of Scots," he portrayed weak and passive characters with considerable understanding. In "Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg" (1898), which was based on actual events in the 1880s, the leading male character has the tender and sensitive nature which is a condition for sensing injustices in society and for remedying them. But his frailness renders him defenceless in the tough political climate, and not even the fine, wise woman who loves him is capable of saving him.
Only two of the plays written late in Bjørnson's life need be mentioned. These are "Daglannet" of 1904, again based on the generation gap, but now linked to industrialisation, and "When the new Vines blossom" (1909) an invigorating comedy whose very title stands in characteristic contrast to Ibsen's sombre epilogue, "When we dead awaken." In the almost 80-year-old poet, faith in life is undiminished. It fills the last great poem he completed and it is discernible in the title of the last work he wished to write, "Good deeds save the world."
Bjørnson died in Paris on April 26, 1910.
Bjørnson's significance in the literary picture lies not only in the intrinsic value of his works, but also in the pioneering part he played within both lyrical poetry, the narrative art and in drama. Many writers in Norway and in the other Scandinavian lands have admitted their indebtedness to him, including some of international renown, such as Knut Hamsun in Norway, Selma Lagerlöf in Sweden, and Johannes V. Jensen in Denmark. A large number of Bjørnson's books have been translated into other European languages and have made their mark both on German literature and that of several Slavonic nations.
Bjørnson's life and works are also intimately linked to the political and social history of his country. He lived in an age of upheaval and innovation, when Norway took a decisive step along the way from a peasant economy to an industrial society, from the dominance of the government officials to democracy, from a subservient role in Scandinavia to equal status. He belonged to the "generation of 1848," as he expressed it. His wish was that the ideals of freedom and equality, which in 1848 had perished along with the revolutions on the Continent, should come to peaceful fruition in Norway. In Bjørnson's view national independence, social and cultural liberation and political democratization were all aspects of the same issue. In all his written works and his political activity he was a spokesman not only for the farming communities and the oppositional sector of the bourgeoisie, but also for the weak and oppressed: women, crofters and workers. For all these groups he demanded voting rights. For women he called for complete equality, access to all professions and easier divorce. He demanded that crofters be allowed to own their own land and that the workers be given better working conditions and more influence at their workplaces. He called for open discussion of topics that had formerly been tabu; Christianity, the monarchy and sexuality, and he was generally the first to speak up. No one in Norway widened the bounds of free debate more than Bjørnson did. And on the basis of the Norwegians' struggle to rule their own house he championed the cause of the small nations in their fight for cultural and political rights and consequently for international arbitration, disarmament and peace.
Info: http://www.mnc.net/norway/bjorn.htm
By Edvard Beyer
But both in his own age and today, it is Bjørnson's literary works that single him out for greatness. In the words of the eminent Danish critic, Georg Brandes, he was "by the richness of his original talent" superior among the writers of the Scandinavian countries; "no flight was too lofty" for his genius. Ibsen was a born dramatist, though in his early years he also wrote poetry. He was by inclination a lyric poet, but throughout his life he also wrote stories, novels and plays. Right from the beginning it was Bjørnson who led the way, rather than his four-years senior friend and rival. It was Bjørnson who created the modern, Nordic historical drama, Ibsen's "The Pretenders" being an example of this genre. (In this play Bjørnson is a model for King Haakon.) It was also Bjørnson who wrote the first realistic contemporary plays in Scandinavia; Ibsen followed, and surpassed him with "Pillars of Society" and "A Doll's House." Bjørnson's plays were those that were first performed outside Scandinavia. They were a resounding success in the great theaters of Germany and Austria, thus clearing the way to the world arena for Ibsen's later dramatic works.
The Peasant Tales
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was born on 8 December 1832 at Kvikne in the upper part of the Østerdal valley in eastern Norway, where his father was a clergyman. When Bjørnson was five the family moved to Nesset in Romsdalen, in the west of the country. After completing secondary school in the town of Molde, and a course for the Artium examination (roughly equivalent to British A-levels), in Oslo, Bjørnson tried his hand at journalism. He wrote literary criticisms and short stories in a bold, refreshing style and in the autumn of 1857 made his debut with "Synnøve Solbakken," the first of his peasant tales. Not only was this his artistic breakthrough; it also became, and still is, his best-loved book. If one compares it with other Nordic novels and short stories of the period, it is easy to see just how strongly it represents a new narrative art. It is terse, concentrated, verbal in its choice of words and syntax, daring in its imagery. The Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian folk tales and perhaps Hans Andersen too have influenced the style, but their main contribution has been in helping Bjørnson to find his own literary style. It bears the hallmark of Norway in its choice of words and syntax, distinguishing it clearly from the written Danish language which was the norm in Norway at the time. Bjørnson had already defined one of his bearing themes: the powerful forces which can lead men astray if they are not put to the service of a superior goal. There is a strong strain of romantic idyll in the story, but also an element of what Bjørnson, two years previously, had called "the naturalistic spirit of the age," which was apparent in "the craving for truth rather than beauty."
During the next few years Bjørnson alternated between writing narratives set against a rural background, and saga plays, a procedure he referred to as "crop rotation." His reasons for this were both literary and political. As he said 50 years later; "We had learned to understand that the linguistic tone of the sagas still survived among our farmers, and that their life resembled the sagas. Our people's life should be built upon its history, and the farmers were to be the basis of the nation." Bjørnson wrote alternately of the saga figures and the farmers of his time, who had certain character traits in common; a restrained power, an unquenchable urge for adventure, talents in search of a goal, stubborn pride and a shy taciturnity, which keeps others at arm's length. But there is a major difference. In the peasant tales the heroes learn to control their powers, supported by love and their Christian faith. In the saga plays, the atmosphere is more rugged, the sav-agery greater, and the heroes come to a tragic end.
The most important of the rustic novels after "Synnøve Solbakken" are "Arne" (1859) and "A Happy Boy" (1860). In "Arne" the main character is more complex than in the other books. Arne is a gifted, artistic man, but a weak one; torn between an impatient urge to escape from his environment, and his love for all the things that bind him to hearth and home, and to his barren native earth. The book's artistic quality varies. Both the lyrical and the more realistic passages are powerful, but Bjørnson did not quite succeed in harmonizing the two. "A Happy Boy," however, is both cohesive and harmonious. It is an idyllic love story, which also reflects some of the issues of the new age.
The Saga Dramas
The saga drama "Lame Hulda" (1858) was written in Bergen where Bjørnson worked as both theatrical manager, editor and politician from 1857 to 1858. "Lame Hulda" was issued at the same time as Ibsen's "The Warriors at Helgeland." Bjørnson's work appears to draw on the same sources, but the main female character has a more turbulent spiritual make-up than Ibsen's Hjørdis, while the most important man has many of the traits that Bjørnson later expanded upon in "Arne."
The greatest of Bjørnson's saga plays is a vivid, powerful dramatic trilogy, "Sigurd Slembe" (1862) which was issued the year before Ibsen's "The Pretenders," Like Schiller, Bjørnson was intent on letting the present, "the basis from which all springs" be an integral part of the drama. But he also learned something from Shakespeare. One of the central figures in the second part of the play, Harald Jarl, shares some of the traits of Hamlet. The main character resembles Torbjørn, the leading male figure in "Synnøve Solbakken," and also "Arne." The bearing theme is the old one -- though it is amplified through a growing understanding of the "laws of equilibrium" and of the universal. "The young Sigurd is able enough -- and a king's son into the bargain." But he is a slave of his own ungovernable nature and the self-destructive forces within him, and is therefore defeated in the struggle for the throne.
Schiller and Shakespeare also provided some of the impulses to "Mary Queen of Scots" (1863), though Bjørnson's view differs from that which runs through Schiller's drama of the Scottish Queen. She is unable to commit herself totally to any human relationship, and this brings about her downfall, he maintains. Bjørnson puts her into interesting relief against the feeble Darnley on the one side, and the strong and obdurate John Knox on the other. The Shakespearean influence is clearly evident in the dramatic richness and the lyrical and picturesque prose.
New Impulses
The war between Denmark and Germany in 1864 made a deep impression on Ibsen and Bjørnson alike, and in a number of poems Bjørnson expressed his sorrow and indignation over the Danes' lonely stance against a superior force. But he reacted strongly to the violent condemnation and the fanatical consistency in Ibsen's "Brand." On the other hand he was affected by the Danish poet, historian and theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig's democratic propaganda and national preachings, and the tolerance and "joyful Christianity" advocated by Grundtvig left their mark on Bjørnson's play "The Fisher Maiden" 1868. This is a fresh and spirited tale of an imaginative young girl who through a series of conflicts achieves artistic maturity. The style and structure reveal a kinship to the peasant tales, but the realistic description of social background, the frankness and independence of the young girl, and the topical discussion passages show the first traces of "the modern breakthrough" that was to take place in the Scandinavian literature of the 1870s and 1880s.
In his earliest stories and plays, and in newspapers and periodicals as well, Bjørnson published many songs and poems, and he continued to do so for the rest of his life. In 1870 he issued a grand, epic-lyrical cycle "Arnljot Gelline," which deals with a minor character in the Snorre Sturlason saga of Olav Haraldsson, theNorwegian saint-king. Later in the same year came "Poems and Songs," a collection of all the lyrical poems he had so far written. It was later published in new, and expanded versions.
Lyrical Poetry
Bjørnson's lyrical poetry is many-faceted. Among its common features are spontaneity, immediate impact and appeal, simple, unconventional expressive imagery, and a rich variety of rhythmic and musical presentation. Both thematically and formally it is richly nuanced.It embraces love poems and descriptions of nature, historical ballads, patriotic poems, including "Norway thine is our devotion" -- the national anthem of Norway -- as well as political battle songs, commissioned works, commemorative poems, and salutations to great contemporaries. The early songs, including many from the peasant tales, frequently have a light and delicate air, while those written after Bjørnson's first encounter with antiquity -- in the Rome of the early 1860s, and with Goethe's lyrical poetry, often have a more powerful rhythm and plastic visuality
Much of his lyrical output is eminently singable, and many of the poems became national property, not only in Norway, but in Denmark too, and to a certain degree in the other Nordic countries. No other Norwegian poet has had so many of his words put to music by so many composers.
Theatre, Newspapers and Politics
Bjørnson was also theatre manager, editor and active politician in the 1860s. The subsequent ten years of his life were more turbulent than ever. Of particularly bitter nature was the so-called "Signal Feud" after Bjørnson, at Grundtvig's burial, had appealed to his Danish friends to "change signals" and seek reconciliation with the Germans (1872). He himself believed that the external strife indirectly served to benefit his poetry, but at times his political activity sapped all his strength, and he was forced to go abroad to write in peace.
Even before his debut Bjørnson wished to write bourgeois contemporary drama. A stay in Paris in 1863 stimulated this urge,and with "The Newly Married Couple" (1865), virtually a "proverb" in Alfred de Musset's style, he created the first bourgeois problem drama to be written in Scandinavia. With its treatment of a marital problem the play was the first to bring queries and doubt into the "contemporary bourgeoisie" as Edvard Brandes, brother of Georg Brandes, later wrote. Nevertheless, ten years were to elapse before Bjørnson's next contemporary drama was published.
To Rome
In 1872, after he had concluded his "crop rotation" with the peasant tale "The Bridal Dance" and the saga drama "Sigurd Jorsalfar" -- neither of them among the finest of his works -- Bjørnson went to Rome, where he stayed from 1873 to 1875. There he wrote "The Bankrupt" and "The Editor." Both of these had their first showings in Stockholm in 1875, and were published during the same year. They inaugurated the realistic contemporary and problem drama in the Nordic countries. "The Bankrupt" was also an international success. Georg Brandes welcomed it with open arms, claiming that the "two great powers, the present and reality had at last come into their right." Many years later August Strindberg called them "the signal rockets."
In these works too French impulses are visible (Augier and Sardou), but Bjørnson has given them his own special stamp. "The Bankrupt," which puts treacherous business morals at the centre of a dramatic conflict, is characterized, like most of Bjørnson's realistic contemporary plays, by a folksy exuberance, clear character delineation, and vivid scenes.
"The Editor" is based on Bjørnson's own experiences as a politician. It seeks to elevate "the ethical responsibility in politics." It is more original than "The Bankrupt," but not so lively in plot and characterization.
In "Captain Mansana" (1875) where the setting is Italian but the thematics are reminiscent of the peasant tales, the responsibility for Captain Mansana's downfall is put on "unhealthy, unnatural social conditions, which poison society and the human mind." Bjørnson's next drama, the part-realistic part-symbolic and occasionally somewhat obscure "The King," is full of political and sociological dynamite. It challenges the monarchy, the state church, the military establishment and pecuniary power, primarily by way of the King, who is a well-meaning idealist -- while the fanatical republican's intransigence is his own undoing.
In the same year -- 1877 -- came "Magnhild," Bjørnson's first,and perhaps finest realistic novel. In this he trains a spotlight -- two years before Ibsen in "A Doll's House" -- on matrimony, painting a dismal picture of the conventional marriage and indicating divorce as the only sensible solution. At the same time he rejects the romantic-religious concept of "the calling," which he had previously believed in. The human assignation is not single but multi-leaved as he puts it. In "Magnhild" he is somewhat more critical of the peasant community than he had previously been.
Both "The King" and "Magnhild" testify to a strong radicalization of Bjørnson's opinions and attitudes. Like the Grundtvigians he believed that Christianity should be a driving force in the development of political and intellectual freedom. But his disappointment at the Church's deprecatory attitude towards democracy and intellectual freedom gradually led him to doubt its preachings. As far back as 1871 he had read Charles Darwin and in 1877-79 he re-read his works. He also read John Stuart Mill, Hippolyte Taine and the Bible criticism of Ernest Renan and Viktor Rydberg. After considerable soul-searching he openly rejected the church's teachings, but by nature he was, and continued to be, a believer. The doctrine of evolution became his new creed and in his beautiful "Psalms" he extolled his belief in "the eternal Spring of Life."
Both "The King," "Magnhild" and Bjørnson's new religious convictions raised a storm of bitterness. The play "The New System" (1879) is partly inspired by this experience. The disagreement revolves around the basic principles of railway construction, but the real conflict lies between the old and the new, between the reforming zeal and thirst for truth of the young, and the conservatism and authoritarian beliefs of the old. In "Leonarda" (1879) Bjørnson continued, in dramatic form, the debate on marriage and divorce that he initiated in "Magnhild." In this play he shows that the "faithless," divorced woman is led by a higher morality than the bishop himself. But while stressing the value of sensualism, and the right to divorce, if this is necessary, the play also extols the virtues of self-control, self-respect and self-denial. In "A Gauntlet" (1883) Bjørnson, through the character Svava, demands of men the same "purity" that is required of women. This brought him under cross-fire from the clergy on the one side, and from the radicals and the adherents of free-love on the other. It marked the commencement of a heated debate on morality later in the 1880s, when Bjørnson clashed with both August Strindberg and Georg Brandes.
Bjørnson's new religious convictions are apparent both in "Dust," a short story written in 1882, where he attempted to show how inherited religious conceptions make people unfit for life itself and in "Beyond our Power" from 1883, the most compact and concentrated of his dramas.
The priest Sang, has much in common with the trail-blazing figures of his early works, but differs from them in his shining piety and boundless charity. All his aspirations are directed towards religion, and he awaits the miracle that will confirm the faith he proclaims. But even for him the miracle and thus -- according to the play -- Christianity itself are beyond human power. Sang is torn to shreds by his own belief and is literally killed by the disappointment. Bjørnson has succeeded in embodying this powerful and challenging theme within the framework of a realistic contemporary drama. The plot is in itself "fantastic" but amidst the mighty Nordland landscapes it becomes plausible and is supported both by the character portrayals, the lyrical base , and the simple, dramatic structure. The mood swings between faith and doubt, hope and anxiety, humour and the deepest gravity, while the tension mounts towards a summit of breathless expectation when anything can happen. Bjørnson had again challenged popular beliefs. The play was performed in Paris in 1894 but was not presented in Norway and Denmark until 1899.
After the religious drama, Bjørnson again returned to the problem of morality, in a richly coloured novel "The Heritage of the Kurts" from 1884. This is a dramatic family chronicle focusing on the moral responsibility of the individual and society in the light of modern genetics and the doctrine of evolution. In 1889 came "In God's Way," in which religious issues lead to a bitter conflict between two friends, a clergyman and a doctor Only in the light of dearly bought experience do they both realize -- and in particular the priest,who is most in need of it -that "where good people walk, there is God's way." The didactic strain is strongly evident in this book but Bjørnson's humour and narrative zest, as well as his talent for making his characters come alive, carries the reader along with him.
In the 1880s Bjørnson's political involvement reached a peak. He played a prominent part in the Liberal Party's struggle for parliamentarianism in Norway and for expanded Norwegian autonomy within the Swedish/ Norwegian union. After 1890 he moderated his views on the union, devoting more time to the cause of peace, arbitration and the struggle for the persecuted and oppressed. This embraced both nations and individuals -- such as Alfred Dreyfus. Social problems increased in step with the march of industrialization and he strove to find their solution. Bjørnson regarded himself as a socialist, but hoped for a peaceful resolution of the class war.
We encounter much of this attitude in his works from the 1890s. Bjørnson wrote an epic poem "Peace" in 1891 and in "Beyond Human Might" from 1895, he created a large-scale drama about the modern class struggle, believably the first in world literature. The subject is a strike, with the two sides locked in bitter conflict. Despairing workers confront obdurate factory owners. Their ideologies too are totally opposed. Revolutionary, idealistic anarchy is at the one extreme, Nietzschean "Herren-Moral" at the other. The outcome is disaster, but from the ashes rises a dream of reconciliation: "Someone must start by forgiving."
Already in "The Editor" Bjørnson had shown how politicians could become hard and unscrupulous. In a number of his works, such as "Sigurd Slembe" and "Mary Queen of Scots," he portrayed weak and passive characters with considerable understanding. In "Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg" (1898), which was based on actual events in the 1880s, the leading male character has the tender and sensitive nature which is a condition for sensing injustices in society and for remedying them. But his frailness renders him defenceless in the tough political climate, and not even the fine, wise woman who loves him is capable of saving him.
Only two of the plays written late in Bjørnson's life need be mentioned. These are "Daglannet" of 1904, again based on the generation gap, but now linked to industrialisation, and "When the new Vines blossom" (1909) an invigorating comedy whose very title stands in characteristic contrast to Ibsen's sombre epilogue, "When we dead awaken." In the almost 80-year-old poet, faith in life is undiminished. It fills the last great poem he completed and it is discernible in the title of the last work he wished to write, "Good deeds save the world."
Bjørnson died in Paris on April 26, 1910.
Bjørnson's significance in the literary picture lies not only in the intrinsic value of his works, but also in the pioneering part he played within both lyrical poetry, the narrative art and in drama. Many writers in Norway and in the other Scandinavian lands have admitted their indebtedness to him, including some of international renown, such as Knut Hamsun in Norway, Selma Lagerlöf in Sweden, and Johannes V. Jensen in Denmark. A large number of Bjørnson's books have been translated into other European languages and have made their mark both on German literature and that of several Slavonic nations.
Bjørnson's life and works are also intimately linked to the political and social history of his country. He lived in an age of upheaval and innovation, when Norway took a decisive step along the way from a peasant economy to an industrial society, from the dominance of the government officials to democracy, from a subservient role in Scandinavia to equal status. He belonged to the "generation of 1848," as he expressed it. His wish was that the ideals of freedom and equality, which in 1848 had perished along with the revolutions on the Continent, should come to peaceful fruition in Norway. In Bjørnson's view national independence, social and cultural liberation and political democratization were all aspects of the same issue. In all his written works and his political activity he was a spokesman not only for the farming communities and the oppositional sector of the bourgeoisie, but also for the weak and oppressed: women, crofters and workers. For all these groups he demanded voting rights. For women he called for complete equality, access to all professions and easier divorce. He demanded that crofters be allowed to own their own land and that the workers be given better working conditions and more influence at their workplaces. He called for open discussion of topics that had formerly been tabu; Christianity, the monarchy and sexuality, and he was generally the first to speak up. No one in Norway widened the bounds of free debate more than Bjørnson did. And on the basis of the Norwegians' struggle to rule their own house he championed the cause of the small nations in their fight for cultural and political rights and consequently for international arbitration, disarmament and peace.
Info: http://www.mnc.net/norway/bjorn.htm
A DAY OF SUNSHINE
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Alone And Repentant
Bergen
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15.9.2014
1902
Theodor Christian Matthias Mommsen
(Germany, 1817 - 1903)
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 was awarded to Theodor Mommsen "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome".
Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), the greatest classical historian of the nineteenth century, was born in Garding, Schleswig, the son of a Protestant minister. He read law and classics at Kiel from 1838-43, and after a few years in France and Italy and a short career in journalism, he became a professor of law at the University of Leipzig. His involvement in the revolution of 1848-49 led to his dismissal in 1850. After holding academic positions at the universities of Zürich and Breslau he was appointed to the chair of Ancient History at the University of Berlin in 1858. He was permanent secretary of the Prussian Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the seventies he was an active and prominent member of the Prussian Parliament, first as a National Liberal and later as a Liberal.
Mommsen's many writings - a bibliography up to 1887 lists over 900 items - revolutionized the study of Roman history. He was the general editor of, and chief contributor to, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, the gigantic collection of Roman inscriptions published by the Berlin Academy (1867-1959). This work laid the foundations for a systematic study of Roman government, administration, economics, and finance. Mommsen's books on Roman coinage and on Roman constitutional and criminal law are still classics in their fields. But he was more than a brilliant scholar with a tremendous grasp of detail and a powerful talent of organization. He was a vivid and powerful writer. His passionate involvement in the revolution of 1848-49 deeply affected the point of view of his main work, the incomplete Römische Geschichte (1854-55, 1885) [History of Rome]. His contempt for the senatorial oligarchy and the «weakling» Cicero, as well as his boundless admiration for the energy and statesmanship of Julius Caesar, for a long time dominated the standard view of the history of that era. The work covers the history of the Roman Republic; a history of the Empire was planned but never written, except for a volume on provincial administration under the Empire.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Theodor Mommsen died on November 1, 1903.
Works in German
Liederbuch dreier Freunde / Theodor Mommsen, Theodor Storm, Tycho Mommsen. – Kiel, 1843Oskische Studien. – Berlin : Nicolai, 1845-1846. – 2 vol.Die Grundrechte des deutschen Volkes, mit Belehrungen und Erläuterungen. – Leipzig : Wigand, 1849. – Rev. ed., Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1969Die unteritalischen Dialekte. – Leipzig : Wigand, 1850Über das römische Münzwesen. – Leipzig : Weidmann, 1850Die Schweiz in römischer Zeit. – Zurich, 1854Römische Geschichte. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1854-1856. – 2 vol.Die römische Chronologie bis auf Caesar. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1858Geschichte des römischen Münzwesens. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1860Römische Forschungen. – Berlin: Weidmann, 1864-1879. – 2 vol.Römisches Staatsrecht. – Leipzig : Hirzel, 1871-1888. – 3 vol.Die Provinzen von Caesar bis Diokletian. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1885. – (Römische Geschichte; 4)Die Örtlichkeit der Varusschlacht. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1885Abriss des römischen Staatsrechts. – Leipzig : Dunker & Humblot, 1893Römisches Strafrecht. – Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1899. – 3 vol.Weihe-Inschrift für Valerius Dalmatius. – Berlin : Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1902Gesammelte Schriften. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1904. – 8 vol.Reden und Aufsätze. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1905Das Römische Imperium der Cäsaren/ hrsg. von Kurt L. Walter-Schomburg. – Berlin : Safari, 1941Tagebuch der französisch-italienischen Reise : 1844/1845 / hrsg. von Gerold und Brigitte Walser. – Bern : Lang, 1976Römische Geschichte : Vollständige Ausgabe in acht Bänden. – München : Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1976. – 8 vol.Römische Kaisergeschichte : nach den Vorlesungs-Mitschriften von Sebastian und Paul Hensel 1882/86 / hrsg. von Barbara und Alexander Demandt. – München : Beck, 1992
Translations into EnglishThe History of Rome / translated by William P. Dickson. – London : Bentley, 1862-1866. – 4 vol..The History of Rome. – Rev. ed. / translated by William P. Dickson. – London : Bentley, 1894. – 5 vol.The History of Rome / abridged by Dero A. Saunders and John H. Collins. – Clinton, Mass. : Meridian Books, 1958The Provinces of Rome from Caesar to Diocletian. – Rev. ed. of vol. 5 of Römische Geschichte / translated by William P. Dickson. – Chicago : Ares, 1974
Critical studies (selection)Theodor Mommsen : Gelehrter, Politiker und Literat / Josef Wiesehöfer (Hg.). Unter Mitarb. von Henning Börm. – Stuttgart : Steiner, 2005Rebenich, Stefan, Theodor Mommsen : eine Biographie. – München : Beck, 2002Theodor Mommsen: Wissenschaft und Politik im 19. Jahrhundert / hrsg. von Alexander Demandt. – Berlin : de Gruyter, 2005
Info: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1902/mommsen-facts.html
Mommsen's many writings - a bibliography up to 1887 lists over 900 items - revolutionized the study of Roman history. He was the general editor of, and chief contributor to, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, the gigantic collection of Roman inscriptions published by the Berlin Academy (1867-1959). This work laid the foundations for a systematic study of Roman government, administration, economics, and finance. Mommsen's books on Roman coinage and on Roman constitutional and criminal law are still classics in their fields. But he was more than a brilliant scholar with a tremendous grasp of detail and a powerful talent of organization. He was a vivid and powerful writer. His passionate involvement in the revolution of 1848-49 deeply affected the point of view of his main work, the incomplete Römische Geschichte (1854-55, 1885) [History of Rome]. His contempt for the senatorial oligarchy and the «weakling» Cicero, as well as his boundless admiration for the energy and statesmanship of Julius Caesar, for a long time dominated the standard view of the history of that era. The work covers the history of the Roman Republic; a history of the Empire was planned but never written, except for a volume on provincial administration under the Empire.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Theodor Mommsen died on November 1, 1903.
Works in German
Liederbuch dreier Freunde / Theodor Mommsen, Theodor Storm, Tycho Mommsen. – Kiel, 1843Oskische Studien. – Berlin : Nicolai, 1845-1846. – 2 vol.Die Grundrechte des deutschen Volkes, mit Belehrungen und Erläuterungen. – Leipzig : Wigand, 1849. – Rev. ed., Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1969Die unteritalischen Dialekte. – Leipzig : Wigand, 1850Über das römische Münzwesen. – Leipzig : Weidmann, 1850Die Schweiz in römischer Zeit. – Zurich, 1854Römische Geschichte. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1854-1856. – 2 vol.Die römische Chronologie bis auf Caesar. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1858Geschichte des römischen Münzwesens. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1860Römische Forschungen. – Berlin: Weidmann, 1864-1879. – 2 vol.Römisches Staatsrecht. – Leipzig : Hirzel, 1871-1888. – 3 vol.Die Provinzen von Caesar bis Diokletian. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1885. – (Römische Geschichte; 4)Die Örtlichkeit der Varusschlacht. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1885Abriss des römischen Staatsrechts. – Leipzig : Dunker & Humblot, 1893Römisches Strafrecht. – Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1899. – 3 vol.Weihe-Inschrift für Valerius Dalmatius. – Berlin : Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1902Gesammelte Schriften. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1904. – 8 vol.Reden und Aufsätze. – Berlin : Weidmann, 1905Das Römische Imperium der Cäsaren/ hrsg. von Kurt L. Walter-Schomburg. – Berlin : Safari, 1941Tagebuch der französisch-italienischen Reise : 1844/1845 / hrsg. von Gerold und Brigitte Walser. – Bern : Lang, 1976Römische Geschichte : Vollständige Ausgabe in acht Bänden. – München : Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1976. – 8 vol.Römische Kaisergeschichte : nach den Vorlesungs-Mitschriften von Sebastian und Paul Hensel 1882/86 / hrsg. von Barbara und Alexander Demandt. – München : Beck, 1992
Translations into EnglishThe History of Rome / translated by William P. Dickson. – London : Bentley, 1862-1866. – 4 vol..The History of Rome. – Rev. ed. / translated by William P. Dickson. – London : Bentley, 1894. – 5 vol.The History of Rome / abridged by Dero A. Saunders and John H. Collins. – Clinton, Mass. : Meridian Books, 1958The Provinces of Rome from Caesar to Diocletian. – Rev. ed. of vol. 5 of Römische Geschichte / translated by William P. Dickson. – Chicago : Ares, 1974
Critical studies (selection)Theodor Mommsen : Gelehrter, Politiker und Literat / Josef Wiesehöfer (Hg.). Unter Mitarb. von Henning Börm. – Stuttgart : Steiner, 2005Rebenich, Stefan, Theodor Mommsen : eine Biographie. – München : Beck, 2002Theodor Mommsen: Wissenschaft und Politik im 19. Jahrhundert / hrsg. von Alexander Demandt. – Berlin : de Gruyter, 2005
Info: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1902/mommsen-facts.html
The History of Rome
BOOK FIRST
The Period Anterior To The Abolition Of The Monarchy
--Ta palaiotera saphos men eurein dia chronou pleithos adunata ein ek de tekmeirion on epi makrotaton skopounti moi pisteusai xumbainei ou megala nomizo genesthai oute kata tous polemous oute es ta alla.--
Thucydides.
CHAPTER I
Introduction
Ancient History
The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penetrating far into the great Continent, forms the largest gulf of the ocean, and, alternately narrowed by islands or projections of the land and expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects the three divisions of the Old World. The shores of this inland sea were in ancient times peopled by various nations belonging in an ethnographical and philological point of view to different races, but constituting in their historical aspect one whole. This historic whole has been usually, but not very appropriately, entitled the history of the ancient world. It is in reality the history of civilization among the Mediterranean nations; and, as it passes before us in its successive stages, it presents four great phases of development--the history of the Coptic or Egyptian stock dwelling on the southern shore, the history of the Aramaean or Syrian nation which occupied the east coast and extended into the interior of Asia as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, and the histories of the twin-peoples, the Hellenes and Italians, who received as their heritage the countries on the European shore. Each of these histories was in its earlier stages connected with other regions and with other cycles of historical evolution; but each soon entered on its own distinctive career. The surrounding nations of alien or even of kindred extraction--the Berbers and Negroes of Africa, the Arabs, Persians, and Indians of Asia, the Celts and Germans of Europe--came into manifold contact with the peoples inhabiting the borders of the Mediterranean, but they neither imparted unto them nor received from them any influences exercising decisive effect on their respective destinies. So far, therefore, as cycles of culture admit of demarcation at all, the cycle which has its culminating points denoted by the names Thebes, Carthage, Athens, and Rome, may be regarded as an unity. The four nations represented by these names, after each of them had attained in a path of its own a peculiar and noble civilization, mingled with one another in the most varied relations of reciprocal intercourse, and skilfully elaborated and richly developed all the elements of human nature. At length their cycle was accomplished. New peoples who hitherto had only laved the territories of the states of the Mediterranean, as waves lave the beach, overflowed both its shores, severed the history of its south coast from that of the north, and transferred the centre of civilization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The distinction between ancient and modern history, therefore, is no mere accident, nor yet a mere matter of chronological convenience. What is called modern history is in reality the formation of a new cycle of culture, connected in several stages of its development with the perishing or perished civilization of the Mediterranean states, as this was connected with the primitive civilization of the Indo-Germanic stock, but destined, like the earlier cycle, to traverse an orbit of its own. It too is destined to experience in full measure the vicissitudes of national weal and woe, the periods of growth, of maturity, and of age, the blessedness of creative effort in religion, polity, and art, the comfort of enjoying the material and intellectual acquisitions which it has won, perhaps also, some day, the decay of productive power in the satiety of contentment with the goal attained. And yet this goal will only be temporary: the grandest system of civilization has its orbit, and may complete its course but not so the human race, to which, just when it seems to have reached its goal, the old task is ever set anew with a wider range and with a deeper meaning.
The whole book: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romehistorians/a/mommsencontents.htm
BOOK FIRST
The Period Anterior To The Abolition Of The Monarchy
--Ta palaiotera saphos men eurein dia chronou pleithos adunata ein ek de tekmeirion on epi makrotaton skopounti moi pisteusai xumbainei ou megala nomizo genesthai oute kata tous polemous oute es ta alla.--
Thucydides.
CHAPTER I
Introduction
Ancient History
The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penetrating far into the great Continent, forms the largest gulf of the ocean, and, alternately narrowed by islands or projections of the land and expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects the three divisions of the Old World. The shores of this inland sea were in ancient times peopled by various nations belonging in an ethnographical and philological point of view to different races, but constituting in their historical aspect one whole. This historic whole has been usually, but not very appropriately, entitled the history of the ancient world. It is in reality the history of civilization among the Mediterranean nations; and, as it passes before us in its successive stages, it presents four great phases of development--the history of the Coptic or Egyptian stock dwelling on the southern shore, the history of the Aramaean or Syrian nation which occupied the east coast and extended into the interior of Asia as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, and the histories of the twin-peoples, the Hellenes and Italians, who received as their heritage the countries on the European shore. Each of these histories was in its earlier stages connected with other regions and with other cycles of historical evolution; but each soon entered on its own distinctive career. The surrounding nations of alien or even of kindred extraction--the Berbers and Negroes of Africa, the Arabs, Persians, and Indians of Asia, the Celts and Germans of Europe--came into manifold contact with the peoples inhabiting the borders of the Mediterranean, but they neither imparted unto them nor received from them any influences exercising decisive effect on their respective destinies. So far, therefore, as cycles of culture admit of demarcation at all, the cycle which has its culminating points denoted by the names Thebes, Carthage, Athens, and Rome, may be regarded as an unity. The four nations represented by these names, after each of them had attained in a path of its own a peculiar and noble civilization, mingled with one another in the most varied relations of reciprocal intercourse, and skilfully elaborated and richly developed all the elements of human nature. At length their cycle was accomplished. New peoples who hitherto had only laved the territories of the states of the Mediterranean, as waves lave the beach, overflowed both its shores, severed the history of its south coast from that of the north, and transferred the centre of civilization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The distinction between ancient and modern history, therefore, is no mere accident, nor yet a mere matter of chronological convenience. What is called modern history is in reality the formation of a new cycle of culture, connected in several stages of its development with the perishing or perished civilization of the Mediterranean states, as this was connected with the primitive civilization of the Indo-Germanic stock, but destined, like the earlier cycle, to traverse an orbit of its own. It too is destined to experience in full measure the vicissitudes of national weal and woe, the periods of growth, of maturity, and of age, the blessedness of creative effort in religion, polity, and art, the comfort of enjoying the material and intellectual acquisitions which it has won, perhaps also, some day, the decay of productive power in the satiety of contentment with the goal attained. And yet this goal will only be temporary: the grandest system of civilization has its orbit, and may complete its course but not so the human race, to which, just when it seems to have reached its goal, the old task is ever set anew with a wider range and with a deeper meaning.
The whole book: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romehistorians/a/mommsencontents.htm
1.9.2014
1901
Sully Prudhomme
(France, 1839 - 1907)
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901 was awarded to Sully Prudhomme"in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect".
Sully Prudhomme
Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme (1839-1907) was the son of a French shopkeeper. He wanted to become an engineer, but an eye disease terminated his training at a polytechnic institute. He studied literature, and after a brief and unsuccessful interlude in industry, he took up law, though without much conviction, and worked in a solicitor's office. Sully Prudhomme was a member of the «Conference La Bruyère», a distinguished student society, and the favourable reception that his fellow members gave to his juvenilia encouraged him to go on writing poetry. His first volume, Stances et Poèmes (1865) [Stanzas and Poems], was well reviewed by Sainte-Beuve and established his reputation. Sully Prudhomme combined a Parnassian regard for formal perfection and elegance with philosophic and scientific interests, which are revealed, for instance, in his translation of the first book of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (1878-79). Some of his other poetic works are: Croquis Italiens (1866-68) [Italian Notebook]; Solitudes (1869); Impressions de la guerre (1870) [Impressions of War]; Les Destins (1872) [Destinies]; La Révolte des fleurs (1872) [Revolt of the Flowers ]; La France (1874); Les Vaines Tendresses (1875) [Vain Endearments]; La Justice (1878); and Le Bonheur (1888) [Happiness]. Les Epaves (1908) [Flotsam], published posthumously, was a collection of miscellaneous poems. A collected edition of his writings in five volumes appeared in 1900-01. He also wrote essays and a book on Pascal, La Vraie Religion selon Pascal (1905) [Pascal on true Religion]. Sully Prudhomme was a member of the French Academy from 1881 until his death in 1907.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel.
It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Info: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1901/
Bibliography:
Works in French
Stances et poèmes. – Paris : Achille Fauré, 1865
Les Epreuves : Amour, doute, rêve, action. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1866
Les Solitudes. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1869
Les Destins. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1872
La Révolte des fleurs. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1874
La France. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1874
Les vaines tendresses. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1875
Œuvres de Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1877-1908. – 6 vol.
La justice. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1878
Discours de réception de Sully Prudhomme à l'Académie française. – Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1882
L'expression dans les beaux-arts : Application de la psychologie à l'étude de l'artiste et des beaux-arts. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1883
Le Prisme : Poésies diverses. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1886
Le Bonheur. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1888
Réflexions sur l'art des vers. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1892
La Nymphe des bois de Versailles. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1896
Que sais-je? – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1896
À Alfred de Vigny. – Paris : Pelletan, 1898
Testament poétique. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1901
La vraie religion selon Pascal. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1905
Épaves. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1908
Le Lien social. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1909
Lettres à une amie : 1865-1881 – Paris : Le Livre contemporain, 1911. – 2 vol.
Patrie et humanité. – Paris : Edition de "La Revue," 1913
Jeunes filles et femmes. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1920
Journal intime. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1922
Choix de poésies. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1928
Critical studies (selection)
Coquelin, Benoit Constant, Un poète philosophe : Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Ollendorff, 1882
Hémon, Camille, La philosophie de M. Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1907
Weber, Ernst, Sully Prudhomme : analyse de quelques-unes de ses poesies. – Berlin, 1907
Zyromski, Ernest, Sully Prudhomme. – Paris, 1907
Estève, Edmond, Sully Prudhomme, poète sentimental et poète philosophe. – Paris, 1925
More info: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/prudhomm.htm
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel.
It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Info: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1901/
Bibliography:
Works in French
Stances et poèmes. – Paris : Achille Fauré, 1865
Les Epreuves : Amour, doute, rêve, action. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1866
Les Solitudes. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1869
Les Destins. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1872
La Révolte des fleurs. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1874
La France. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1874
Les vaines tendresses. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1875
Œuvres de Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1877-1908. – 6 vol.
La justice. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1878
Discours de réception de Sully Prudhomme à l'Académie française. – Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1882
L'expression dans les beaux-arts : Application de la psychologie à l'étude de l'artiste et des beaux-arts. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1883
Le Prisme : Poésies diverses. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1886
Le Bonheur. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1888
Réflexions sur l'art des vers. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1892
La Nymphe des bois de Versailles. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1896
Que sais-je? – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1896
À Alfred de Vigny. – Paris : Pelletan, 1898
Testament poétique. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1901
La vraie religion selon Pascal. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1905
Épaves. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1908
Le Lien social. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1909
Lettres à une amie : 1865-1881 – Paris : Le Livre contemporain, 1911. – 2 vol.
Patrie et humanité. – Paris : Edition de "La Revue," 1913
Jeunes filles et femmes. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1920
Journal intime. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1922
Choix de poésies. – Paris : Alphonse Lemerre, 1928
Critical studies (selection)
Coquelin, Benoit Constant, Un poète philosophe : Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Ollendorff, 1882
Hémon, Camille, La philosophie de M. Sully Prudhomme. – Paris : Félix Alcan, 1907
Weber, Ernst, Sully Prudhomme : analyse de quelques-unes de ses poesies. – Berlin, 1907
Zyromski, Ernest, Sully Prudhomme. – Paris, 1907
Estève, Edmond, Sully Prudhomme, poète sentimental et poète philosophe. – Paris, 1925
More info: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/prudhomm.htm
POETRY IN ENGLISH
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Broken Vase
The vase where this verbena is dying was cracked by a blow from a fan. It must have barely brushed it, for it made no sound. But the slight wound, biting into the crystal day by day, surely, invisibly crept slowly all around it. The clear water leaked out drop by drop. The flowers' sap was exhausted. Still no one suspected anything. Don't touch! It's broken. Thus often does the hand we love, barely touching the heart, wound it. Then the heart cracks by itself and the flower of its love dies. Still intact in the eyes of the world, it feels its wound, narrow and deep, grow and softly cry. It's broken. Don't touch! The Cradles Along the quay, the great ships, that ride the swell in silence, take no notice of the cradles. that the hands of the women rock. But the day of farewells will come, when the women must weep, and curious men are tempted towards the horizons that lure them! And that day the great ships, sailing away from the diminishing port, feel their bulk held back by the spirits of the distant cradles. |
At The Water's Edge
To sit and watch the wavelets as they flow Two - side by side; To see the gliding clouds that come and And mark them glide; If from low roofs the smoke is wreathing pale, To watch it wreath; If flowers around breathe perfume on the gale, To feel them breathe; If the bee sips the honeyed fruit that glistens, To sip the dew; If the bird warbles while the forest listens, To listen too; Beneath the willow where the brook is singing, To hear its song; Nor feel, while round us that sweet dream is clinging The hours too long; To know one only deep over mastering passion - The love we share; To let the world go worrying in its fashion Without one care - We only, while around all weary grow, Unwearied stand, And midst the fickle changes others knows, Love - hand in hand In This World In this world all the flow'rs wither, The sweet songs of the birds are brief; I dream of summers that will last Always! In this world the lips touch but lightly, And no taste of sweetness remains; I dream of a kiss that will last Always. In this world ev'ry man is mourning His lost friendship or his lost love; I dream of fond lovers abiding Always! |
Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896)
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Bosna i Hercegovina
Design: Sabi / Autors & Sabahudin Hadžialić. Design LOGO - Stevo Basara.
Freelance gl. i odg. urednik od / Freelance Editor in chief as of 2009: Sabahudin Hadžialić
All Rights Reserved. Publishers online and owners: Peter Tase & Sabahudin Hadžialić
Whitefish Bay, WI, United States of America
Contact Editorial board E-mail: [email protected];
Narudžbe/Order: http://www.diogenpro.com/diogen-all-in-one.html
Pošta/Mail USA: Peter Tase, 5023 NORTH BERKELEY BLVD. WHITEFISH BAY, WI, 53217, USA
Pošta/Mail BiH: Sabahudin Hadžialić, Grbavička 32, 71000 Sarajevo i/ili Dr. Wagner 18/II, 70230 Bugojno,
Bosna i Hercegovina