Three Comedies

Bj rnstjerne Martinius Bj rnson (8. December 1832 - 26. April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit," becoming the first Norwegian Nobel laureate. With "The Newly Married Couple" (1865), virtually a "proverb" in Alfred de Musset's style, Bj rnson created the first bourgeois problem drama to be written in Scandinavia. With its treatment of a marital problem the play was the first to bring queries and doubt into the "contemporary bourgeoisie." In "Leonarda" (1879) Bj rnson continued, in dramatic form, the debate on marriage and divorce that he initiated in his novel "Magnhild." In this play he shows that the "faithless," divorced woman is led by a higher morality than the bishop himself. But while stressing the value of sensualism, and the right to divorce, if this is necessary, the play also extols the virtues of self-control, self-respect and self-denial. In "A Gauntlet" (1883) Bj rnson, attacks the new bohemian writers' demands for complete sexual freedom. Through the character Svava, he demands of men the same "purity" that is required of women. This brought him under cross-fire from the clergy on the one side, and from the radicals and the adherents of free-love on the other. Bj rnson's significance in the literary picture lies not only in the intrinsic value of his works, but also in the pioneering part he played within both lyrical poetry, the narrative art and in drama. Many writers in Norway and in the other Scandinavian lands have admitted their indebtedness to him, including some of international renown, such as Knut Hamsun in Norway, Selma Lagerl f in Sweden, and Johannes V. Jensen in Denmark. He began as a passionate defender of Norway's cultural and political independence, moved later toward pan-Scandinavianism, and ended fighting for world peace and the rights of all oppressed peoples. Bj rnson was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1903. He died in Paris on April 26, 1910.