The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bremer, Fredrika

BREMER, brā'mėr, Fredrika, Swedish novelist: b. Tuorla, Finland, 17 Aug. 1801; d. Arsta, 31 Dec. 1865. At 17 she was taken on a tour through Germany, Switzerland and France. In 1828 appeared the first volume of her ‘Sketches of Everyday Life,’ but the second volume, ‘The H. Family’ (1833; English transl., 1844), first revealed her power. From this time she devoted herself to writing stories that quickly became popular in translations far beyond the bounds of Sweden, and she varied her literary labor by long journeys in Italy, England, the United States, Greece and Palestine, which supplied the materials for her ‘Homes of the New World’ (1853), and ‘Life in the Old World’ (1862), full of fine descriptions of scenery and vivid pictures of social life, with sound views on political and moral questions. The admirable translations of Mary Howitt had preceded her in the United States as well as England, and insured her an equally warm welcome on both sides of the Atlantic. On her return to Sweden she gave herself up to philanthropy, but more particularly to the education and emancipation of women, and the consequent propagandist character of her later novels, ‘Bertha’ and ‘Father and Daughter’ (1859), was detrimental in no small degree to their literary value. Her religious views she set forth in her ‘Morning Watches’ (1842). She has been called the Jane Austen of Sweden. Of her stories perhaps the most perfect is ‘The Neighbors’ (1837). ‘The Diary,’ ‘The President's Daughters,’ ‘Brothers and Sisters’ and ‘Strife and Peace or Scenes in Dalecarlia,’ are only less popular. ‘Lives’ were published in 1868 and at Copenhagen in 1892 by Petersen. See Home, The.