Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XXIII. Literature - C. The Finnish School - D. A New Brilliant Period in Literature, after 1860
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The Finnish School 369
women as we find them in every-day life. They are
Finland’s and Sweden’s plain, faithful sons. As they
once lived their life with their faults and merits, such
they live in literature. We see them with all their angu-
larities and peculiarities, stern and silent, on the sur-
face hard. And yet they appeal to our hearts. We find
such characters beautiful in spite of faults, for within
the rough exterior there is a genuine pearl. That is
why we can live and sympathize with the army "that
froze and starved and conquered with it all."
Zacharias Topeliics. Finland’s most distinguished
writer after Runeberg was his pupil and friend Tope-
lius. He was especially a children’s writer. He has
spread gladness and goodness among millions of chil-
dren through his charming stories for children. He has
given his readers, old and young, in his Surgeon’s
Stories, a series of most enchanting historical novels.
He died at the age of eighty in the year 1898.
D. A NEW BRILLIANT PERIOD IN LITERATURE
AFTER 1860
Viktor Rydberg. In 1828, there was born to a poor
subaltern officer in Jonkoping a son who became one
of his country’s noblest writers and thinkers. Viktor
Rydberg was a scion of an old peasant family. He was
a genuine Swede in thought and language, and prided
himself on the fact that
"To Arian blood, the purest and the oldest,
To be a Swede he was ordained by friendly Norn,"
as he sings in his swan song.
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