Author: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Publisher:
Published: 2018-11-08
Total Pages: 303
ISBN-13: 9781731023223
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If these novelettes were the work of a young and unknown writer just sharpening his quill, one's judgment upon them would be unhesitatingly pronounced. Gleams of power, flashes of insight, strong situations, bits of unmistakable poetry, all these are there--staccato chords in what might be a delightful harmony, if only the musician knew how to manage his instrument. This instrument is one of the most rugged and uneven languages known in Europe--the Norwegian dialect, bristling with consonants and impossibilities of sound, curiously naked in its syntax, abrupt and monosyllabic in much of its utterance. The peculiarities of the language seem to have gone over into the psychology of the people that use it, as they are reflected in Bjornson's pages at least. Conversation such as we know it seems unknown to these strange inarticulate folk: their talk is jerky, disconnected, and the characters themselves--Magnhild, Ronnang, Skarlie, Mrs. Bang--are odd, dumb animals who have not yet learnt articulate speech. How such a book as '' Magnhild" could have given rise to a violent "controversy," even twenty years ago and among the most provincial of nationalities, is a mystery that passes comprehension. Literature must be at a low ebb when such things cause controversy. Björnson has occasionally written charming things, but "Magnhild" and "Dust" are not of them. The problematic conduct of hero and heroine, the hints of improper alliances, the torrents of tears shed without the slightest apology by the females, the obstreperous emotion evoked by unmotived chance meetings of rather commonplace people, are certainly not things to whet a jaded appetite or quicken the pulses of a sensation-stunted public. We don't know why these trifles have been thought worthy of translation, except to complete the opus of a not very voluminous writer. Bjornson is a viking by nature, full of fight, full of parliamentary ability, versatile, but by no means a star of the first magnitude. Literary astronomers spying in the dark Norwegian heavens have turned a star into a sun because stars were scarce there, and an absurd overestimate is the result. -- The Critic, Volume 30 [1897]
