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Modern Literary Period 373
Strindberg was a restless spirit, who had investi-
gated all departments of life, but had never felt satis-
fied. Nature alone had afforded him moments of peace.
In its bosom he could at times forget men’s petty
rivalries, and even forget his own torn self. His stories
from the Swedish skerries (Skargardsberattelser) are
therefore among his best writings. It is genuine realis-
tic art. Splendid passages are also found in his his-
torical sketches, "Swedish Fortunes and Adventures,"
as well as in his plays, "Master Olof
"
(Olavus Petri) ,
"Gustaf Vasa," and "Eric XIV."
New Idealism a Reverse to Realism. The Realism
of the latter part of the nineteenth century felt con-
vinced that Romanticism had faded away, and yet it
lived on. Its sentimentalism and its scorn of reality
were, indeed, gone. But the thought of the infinite and
eternal in the human soul can not die. The divine gift
of fancy can not be denied us lest we die. The tendency
which struggles for these two realities in the human
soul, high thoughts and ideas, is Realism. To this
school belonged, in the first place, Viktor Rydberg. He
was followed by a large number of writers, among
whom are Eroding, Hallstrom, Karlfeldt, Heidenstam,
and Lagerlof.
Verner von Heidenstam. It was the joy of life whose
praise young Heidenstam sang in his early verses. To
be young and happy, to be allowed to be glad, this had
not been permitted to a genuine realist. There were
so many social problems yet unsolved. As if all peri-
ods did not have their special problems to solve! and
as if one could solve them better in a melancholy mood !
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