Viktor Rydberg
Abraham Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895) was a prominent Swedish novelist and intellectual known for his significant contributions to Romantic literature. Born into a lower-class family in Jönköping, his challenging childhood experiences influenced his literary themes. Rydberg studied at the University of Lund and initially embarked on a career in journalism, joining a leading newspaper in Göteborg, where his romantic novels began to gain attention. His first notable work, "The Freebooter of the Baltic," showcased his idealistic tendencies, while his most famous novel, "The Last Athenian," solidified his reputation among Swedish novelists by 1859.
In addition to his fiction, Rydberg made notable contributions to theology, with his critical study of the Bible being the first of its kind in modern Swedish literature. He wrote extensively on aesthetics, philosophy, and psychology, and his translation of Goethe's "Faust" reflects the influence of German Romanticism on his work. Rydberg is recognized as one of the last Romantics, revered for his idealistic vision during a transformative period in Swedish literature.
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Viktor Rydberg
Swedish novelist and poet
- Born: December 18, 1828
- Birthplace: Jönköping, Sweden
- Died: September 21, 1895
- Place of death: Djursholm, Sweden
Biography
Abraham Viktor Rydberg (REED-behrg), born at Jönköping into a lower-class Swedish family on December 18, 1828, had a difficult childhood. It may have been this difficult time that turned him toward his later Romantic writing. Influenced in his early youth by contemporary liberalism, he studied at the University of Lund and in 1854 turned to journalism.
In 1855 he joined the staff of the leading newspaper of the city of Góteborg, and his romantic novels first appeared as serials in the columns of this newspaper. The first of these works, The Freebooter of the Baltic, won him some acclaim; it contains evidences of the idealism that was to be more fully developed in his later novels. Of his novels, The Last Athenian is the most famous. By the time it appeared in 1859, Rydberg was generally regarded in the first rank of Swedish novelists.
Turning to religion, he produced the first Swedish modern critical study of the Bible, Bibelns lära om Kristus (the Bible’s teaching about Christ). Besides his work in the novel and in theological criticism he produced a great deal of material in the fields of aesthetics, philosophy, and psychology. His translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust in 1876 shows the profound influence that the earlier German writer had upon Rydberg’s Romanticism. Rydberg appeared on the Swedish literary scene after a relatively barren period. Historically, he was one of the last of the Romantics and certainly one of the few idealists of the period.
Bibliography
Algulin, Ingemar. A History of Swedish Literature. Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 1989.
Bredsdorff, Elias, Brita Mortensen, and Ronald Popperwell. An Introduction to Scandinavian Literature. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1951.
Moffett, Judith, ed. and trans. The North! To the North! Five Swedish Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
Stork, Charles Wharton. “The Poetry of Viktor Rydberg.” In Schelling Anniversary Papers, edited by A. C. Baugh. 1923. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967.
Warme, Lars G., ed. A History of Swedish Literature. Vol. 1 in A History of Scandinavian Literatures, edited by Sven H. Rossel. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
Zuck, Virpi, ed. Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990.