Book review: A compelling portrait of a protean giant of European Modernism
I am a socialist, a nihilist, a republican, anything that is anti-reactionary!... I want to turn everything upside down to see what lies beneath; I believe we are so webbed, so horribly regimented, that no spring-cleaning is possible, everything must be burned, blown to bits, and then we can start afresh.
Johan August Strindberg (January 1849 - May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.. considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature whose The Red Room (1879) has been described as the first modern Swedish novel
Strindberg: A Life, by Sue Prideaux
Considering how wealthy and progressive Scandinavia is today, few aside from students of history and readers of the novels of Knut Hamsun will know how poor and backward Scandinavia (and especially Norway) was before the twentieth century. Strindberg’s novels and plays acted as a bellwether of social progressiveness and psychological perceptiveness in a period of rapid civil and intellectual evolution. When Strindberg was prosecuted for blasphemy, he felt he was being made a scapegoat because of his calls for female emancipation. He was hugely controversial in his home country. Depending on one’s political stance, Strindberg was either a brave standard-bearer for reform or a mentally unstable firebrand with a murky private life. Largely spurned by the establishment, Strindberg received an Anti-Nobel Prize, raised by donations from 20,000 contributors. Though far from rich, he gave it away to family members and charities. His funeral was nominally private but observed by sizeable crowds.
A combination of psychological insight and disregard for theatrical convention gives Strindberg’s plays complexity and depth. A burning sense of injustice informs the writing, though Strindberg was burdened by regret at his personal failings. In Prideaux’s book, we get to see Strindberg as sensitive and brusque, irrational and logical, a tender father and a jealous husband. It therefore makes sense when we learn of his fascination with astronomy and photography, painting and numerology. Though unarguably eccentric (he was once arrested for injecting apples with morphine but discharged by the policeman as a harmless madman), his actions are never incomprehensible once we understand the various facets of his personality.
Prideaux, an Anglo-Norwegian novelist, is ideally placed to undertake this biography, having already written a revealing life of Edvard Munch. Indeed, the stories of Munch and Strindberg overlap in their friendship. In the 1890s, they spent time in the louche milieu of Zum Schwarzen Ferkel (The Black Piglet), a notorious drinking den in Berlin frequented by intellectuals. The roll-call of attendees includes novelist Knut Hamsun, painter Gallen-Kallela, art-critic Meier-Graefe and composer Jean Sibelius (once), as well as Strindberg and Munch and a host of scientists and philosophers, attended by mistresses and hangers-on.
Inevitably, absinthe, adultery and derangement of the senses drove some to madness, suicide and murder. Strindberg himself entered a period of mental instability. Paranoid and occasionally suicidal, he severed ties to friends and picked unwanted quarrels. When he recovered equilibrium, he had material for many plays and autobiographies and he eventually returned to Sweden to live out the last years of his life...http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/12485/
Johan August Strindberg (January 1849 - May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter.. considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature whose The Red Room (1879) has been described as the first modern Swedish novel
Strindberg: A Life, by Sue Prideaux
Considering how wealthy and progressive Scandinavia is today, few aside from students of history and readers of the novels of Knut Hamsun will know how poor and backward Scandinavia (and especially Norway) was before the twentieth century. Strindberg’s novels and plays acted as a bellwether of social progressiveness and psychological perceptiveness in a period of rapid civil and intellectual evolution. When Strindberg was prosecuted for blasphemy, he felt he was being made a scapegoat because of his calls for female emancipation. He was hugely controversial in his home country. Depending on one’s political stance, Strindberg was either a brave standard-bearer for reform or a mentally unstable firebrand with a murky private life. Largely spurned by the establishment, Strindberg received an Anti-Nobel Prize, raised by donations from 20,000 contributors. Though far from rich, he gave it away to family members and charities. His funeral was nominally private but observed by sizeable crowds.
A combination of psychological insight and disregard for theatrical convention gives Strindberg’s plays complexity and depth. A burning sense of injustice informs the writing, though Strindberg was burdened by regret at his personal failings. In Prideaux’s book, we get to see Strindberg as sensitive and brusque, irrational and logical, a tender father and a jealous husband. It therefore makes sense when we learn of his fascination with astronomy and photography, painting and numerology. Though unarguably eccentric (he was once arrested for injecting apples with morphine but discharged by the policeman as a harmless madman), his actions are never incomprehensible once we understand the various facets of his personality.
Prideaux, an Anglo-Norwegian novelist, is ideally placed to undertake this biography, having already written a revealing life of Edvard Munch. Indeed, the stories of Munch and Strindberg overlap in their friendship. In the 1890s, they spent time in the louche milieu of Zum Schwarzen Ferkel (The Black Piglet), a notorious drinking den in Berlin frequented by intellectuals. The roll-call of attendees includes novelist Knut Hamsun, painter Gallen-Kallela, art-critic Meier-Graefe and composer Jean Sibelius (once), as well as Strindberg and Munch and a host of scientists and philosophers, attended by mistresses and hangers-on.
Inevitably, absinthe, adultery and derangement of the senses drove some to madness, suicide and murder. Strindberg himself entered a period of mental instability. Paranoid and occasionally suicidal, he severed ties to friends and picked unwanted quarrels. When he recovered equilibrium, he had material for many plays and autobiographies and he eventually returned to Sweden to live out the last years of his life...http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/12485/
