"A Happy Boy" was written in 1859 and 1860. It is, Bjornson's best story of peasant life. In it the author has succeeded in drawing the characters with remarkable distinctness_, while his profound psychological insight, his perfectly artless simplicity of style, and his thorough sympathy with the hero and his surroundings are nowhere more apparent. This view is sustained by the great popularity of "A Happy Boy" throughout Scandinavia. Bjornstjerne Martinus Bjornson (1832-1910) was a Norwegian writer and a 1903 Nobel Prize ...
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"A Happy Boy" was written in 1859 and 1860. It is, Bjornson's best story of peasant life. In it the author has succeeded in drawing the characters with remarkable distinctness_, while his profound psychological insight, his perfectly artless simplicity of style, and his thorough sympathy with the hero and his surroundings are nowhere more apparent. This view is sustained by the great popularity of "A Happy Boy" throughout Scandinavia. Bjornstjerne Martinus Bjornson (1832-1910) was a Norwegian writer and a 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. He is generally considered as one of "The Great Four" Norwegian writers. Bjornson matriculated at the University of Oslo in 1852, soon embarking upon a career as a journalist, focusing on criticism of drama. In 1857 he published Synnve Solbakken, the first of his peasant novels; this was followed by Arne (1858), the most important specimens of his peasant tales. Although Bjornson has introduced into his novels and plays songs of extraordinary beauty, he was never a very copious writer of verse. Between 1864 and 1874 he was mainly occupied with politics, and with his business as a theatrical manager. Bjornson's political opinions had brought upon him a charge of high treason, and he took refuge for a time in Germany. A subject which interested him greatly was the question of the bondemaal, the adopting of a national language for Norway distinct from the Dansk-norsk. Amongst his famous works are: Absalom's Hair (1898), Three Comedies (1912) and Three Dramas (1914). Bjornstjerne Bjornson is the first Norwegian poet who can in any sense be called national. The national genius, with its limitations as well as its virtues, has found its living embodiment in him. Whenever he opens his mouth it is as if the nation itself were speaking. If he writes a little song, hardly a year elapses before its phrases have passed into the common speech of the people; composers compete for the honor of interpreting it in simple. HE has a great talent, a clear conscience, a beautiful art. He has my love not only because he is a poet of the most exquisite verity, but because he is a lover of men, with a faith in them such as can move mountains of ignorance, and dullness, and greed. He is next to Tolstoy in his willingness to give himself for his kind; if he would rather give himself in fighting than in suffering wrong, I do not know that his self-sacrifice is less in degree.
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