Emilie Flygare-Carlén
Encyclopedia
Emilie Flygare-Carlén was a Swedish novel
ist.
of Bohuslän
. Her father, Rutger Smith, was a retired sea captain who had settled down as a small merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the coast. She thus came in frequent contact with the seafaring folk, fishermen, and smugglers who were to populate her later stories. At the age of twenty, she married a local physician, Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the province of Småland
. She was widowed in 1833, returned to her old home, and decided to devote herself to literature.
She moved to Stockholm
some years later, and in 1841 she married a lawyer, publicist and poet of that city, Johan Gabriel Carlén (1814–1875). Her house became a meeting place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829–1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her writing until 1884.
She founded charitable endowments in aid of students and of teachers, and of fishermen and their widows. She is best known by the hyphenated name Flygare-Carlén. Her daughter, Rosa Carlén (1836–1883), was also a popular novelist.
Her novels were collected into 31 volumes (Stockholm, 1869–1875). In 1878, she published an autobiography, Minnen af svenskt författarlif 1840–1860 (Reminiscences of Swedish Literary Life). She was translated into Danish
, Norwegian
, German
, Russian
, French
, English
, Italian
, Dutch
, Hungarian
and Czech
, and was the most widely read Swedish novelist of her time.
In 2007, Valancourt books released a new scholarly English edition of The Magic Goblet (Kyrkoinvigningen i Hammarby, 1841), edited by Amy H. Sturgis.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist.
Biography
Emilie Smith grew up in the archipelagoArchipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
of Bohuslän
Bohuslän
' is a Swedish traditional province, or landskap, situated in Götaland on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the west, and the county of Østfold in Norway to the north...
. Her father, Rutger Smith, was a retired sea captain who had settled down as a small merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the coast. She thus came in frequent contact with the seafaring folk, fishermen, and smugglers who were to populate her later stories. At the age of twenty, she married a local physician, Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the province of Småland
Småland
' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...
. She was widowed in 1833, returned to her old home, and decided to devote herself to literature.
She moved to Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
some years later, and in 1841 she married a lawyer, publicist and poet of that city, Johan Gabriel Carlén (1814–1875). Her house became a meeting place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829–1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her writing until 1884.
She founded charitable endowments in aid of students and of teachers, and of fishermen and their widows. She is best known by the hyphenated name Flygare-Carlén. Her daughter, Rosa Carlén (1836–1883), was also a popular novelist.
Publications
Her first novel, Valdemar Klein, was published in 1838. In that and several later novels, such as Rosen på Tistelön (1842; Eng. trans. The Rose of Tistelön, 1842), Pål Värning, Enslingen på Johannisskäret (1846; Eng. trans. The Hermit, 4 vols., 1853), Jungfrutornet, and Ett köpmanshus i skärgården (1859; The Merchant's House on the Cliffs), she wrote about life in the archipelago and the sea, while the stories of novels such as Fosterbröderna, Fideikommisset, Ett år, En nyckfull kvinna, Kamrer Lassman, and Vindskuporna take place in the middle or upper classes.Her novels were collected into 31 volumes (Stockholm, 1869–1875). In 1878, she published an autobiography, Minnen af svenskt författarlif 1840–1860 (Reminiscences of Swedish Literary Life). She was translated into Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
and Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, and was the most widely read Swedish novelist of her time.
In 2007, Valancourt books released a new scholarly English edition of The Magic Goblet (Kyrkoinvigningen i Hammarby, 1841), edited by Amy H. Sturgis.