Almqvist - Carl Jonas Love Almqvist

Swedish author. Born November 28th in Stockholm. After graduating from Uppsala University, he worked as a civil servant and then spent two years as a farmer before beginning his career as a writer. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing works including the bizarre and wildly imaginative novel Amoria (completed in 1823, rewritten and published in 1839), as well as poetry, drama and criticism, as seen in The Book of the Rose (1833-1851), and was regarded as a pioneer of the innovative Romantic movement. After the magnificent novel The Queen's Jewels (1834), featuring a dancer from the dynasty of Gustav III, he made a complete turnaround and wrote realistic works such as The Synagogue (1838), which was based on the Rousseau-esque idea of ​​"returning to nature," and was based on simple peasant life. In "That's Good" (1839), he argued that marriage was a personal matter based on love and understanding, and that there was no room for the state or church to intervene, which drew criticism from those around him. Furthermore, he fled to America in 1851 on suspicion of forgery and attempted poisoning, and after wandering around various places, he returned to Europe and died in Bremen, Germany on September 26, 1866. The rapid changes in his style of writing may have been due to the fact that he lived in a kind of transitional period, but above all, it was due to the fact that he himself was a man of contradictions and rapid fluctuations. His life is considered one of the most mysterious in the history of Swedish literature.

[Michio Tanaka]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

スウェーデンの作家。11月28日ストックホルムで生まれる。ウプサラ大学卒業後公務員、2年間の農民生活ののち、作家活動に入る。怪奇、奔放な空想に満ちた小説『アモリーナ』（1823年完成。書き改めて1839年出版）をはじめ、多作、多彩な彼は『野ばらの書』（1833～1851）にみられるように、詩、劇、評論に健筆を振るい、革新的なロマン主義運動の旗手と目された。グスタフ3世王朝の舞姫を配した華麗な小説『女王の宝石』（1834）ののちは、一転して、ルソー風の「自然に帰れ」の思潮を基盤として、素朴な農民生活に取材した『会堂』（1838）ほかの写実的な作品を書いた。『それでよい』（1839）には、結婚は愛と理解に基づく個人の問題で、国家、教会が介入する余地はないとの主張を盛って、周囲のひんしゅくを買った。そのうえ文書偽造、毒殺未遂の容疑で1851年アメリカへ逃れ、各地を放浪ののち、ヨーロッパへの帰途、1866年9月26日、ドイツのブレーメンで死去。彼の作風の変貌(へんぼう)の激しさは、彼の生きた時代が一種の過渡期であったためでもあろうが、なによりも彼自身矛盾に満ちた振幅の激しい性格の持ち主であったことによる。その生涯はスウェーデン文学史上もっとも謎(なぞ)に満ちたものとされている。

［田中三千夫］

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