Legender

by August Strindberg

Nationalupplagan av August Strindbergs samlade verk nr 38.

Efter den självbiografiska romanen Inferno 1897 författade Strindberg på hösten samma år fortsättningen Legender. Den tillkom i Paris och skrevs till största delen på franska. Vid författandet byggde Strindberg på sina anteckningar i Ockulta Dagboken.

Legender består egentligen av två olika verk: dels den egentliga romaner "Legender" eller "Légendes" ("Inferno II"), dels den ofullbordade Jakob brottas. Ett fragment ("Inferno III"). Romanen har beundrats för sina lysande skildringar av Lund och Paris. Den är också berömd för sina närgångna rapporter, "legender", om andras egentliga upplevelser - för att demonstrera "makternas återkomst" utnyttjade Strindberg hänsynslöst det hans vänner i Lund, bl.a. Bengt Lidforss och Axel Herrlin, hade berättat om sig själva. En höjdpunkt i romanen utgörs av det avsnitt i Jakob brottas där Strindberg skildrar huvudpersonens möten med en Kristusliknande gestalt i Luxembourgträdgården i Paris.

Både Strindbergs franska originaltext och en reviderad version av översättningen till svenska förstaupplagan 1898 återges i volymen. Denna är försedd med en omfattande kommentar samt kartor över Lund och Paris.

Genres: Swedish Literature, 19th Century

435 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Johan August Strindberg, a Swede, wrote psychological realism of noted novels and plays, including Miss Julie (1888) and The Dance of Death (1901).

Johan August Strindberg painted. He alongside Henrik Ibsen, Søren Kierkegaard, Selma Lagerlöf, Hans Christian Andersen, and Snorri Sturluson arguably most influenced of all famous Scandinavian authors. People know this father of modern theatre. His work falls into major literary movements of naturalism and expressionism. People widely read him internationally to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_...

Reviews

[Jakša · Rating 4 out of 5]

U ovom delu Strindberg je 48-godišnjak koji prolazi kroz ozbiljnu životnu krizu (neko bi rekao krizu srednjih godina) u kojoj oseća gorku grižu savesti i kajanje zbog dosadašnjeg života, dela koja je počinio i stavova koje je zastupao. Nakon dvadeset godina braka on napušta ženu i decu ne želeći više da dopušta porodici da ga guši, i taj čin u njemu izaziva velika previranja i preispitavanja. Takođe, skepticizam koji ga je oduvek pratio zamenjuje okretanjem Bogu i religiji, prevashodno pod uticajem Emanuela Svedenborga, švedskog teologa i mislioca, koji je između ostalog inspirisao i Vilijema Blejka, pogotovo u njegovom delu The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Svedenborgov Bog je osvetoljubiv i nepraštajući, čitav život je jedno pečenje u paklu usled naše grešne prirode, što se kod Strindberga očituje u tome što ga proganjaju nečiste i okultne sile. On noću čuje zvukove koji mu ne daju mira, pohode ga prikaze i astralni dvojnici koji ga kušaju, sumanuti sticaji okolnosti sprečavaju ga da poseti mesta ili prijatelje koje želi nakon čega on zaključuje da neka nevidljiva sila ne želi da on to čini i on joj se povinuje. Očiti su, dakle, uticaji okultista, spiritista i teozofa koji su u vreme kada je Strindberg živeo bili izrazito popularni, uporedo sa slabljenjem vere u hrišćanskog Boga. Sve to je prosto uživanje čitati, i činio sam to sa osmehom na licu.

Drugi deo knjige se odvija u Parizu i tu se već pridružuje uticaj francuskog pisca Uismansa (čiju knjigu 'Na putu' nisam mogao da dovršim zbog strašne odbojnosti prema protagonisti i njegovom 'hoće kaki, neće kaki' putu ka hrišćanstvu, srećom pa Strindberg nije ni izbliza toliko iritantan kao on), opisuju se ulice i zgrade tog svetlog grada, dalje preispituju liberalni stavovi iz mladosti koji su oslobađajući žene učinili da one vremenom postanu prostitutke, oni koji su bili ugnjetavani postali su ugnjetavači...

Najjači utisak je na mene ostavio sledeći izvod iz dnevnika:

26. april

Izlet u bukovu šumu. Više stotina mladih se okupilo onde. Pevaju pesme iz vremena kada sam ja bio mlad, pre tridesetak godina; igraju se igara iz moje mladosti, plešu iste plesove.
Savladava me tuga i odjednom se moj prethodni život odvija pred mojim unutrašnjim očima, mogu da merim pređenu stazu i čini mi se kao da sam zaslepljen. Da, ona me vodi do kraja; star sam a staza ide u pravcu groba. Ne mogu da zadržim suze - ja sam star.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I finally read the "Notes from an Occult Diary"! I purchased the complete works of August Strindberg on Kindle several months ago, but it was a synchronicity bordering on the truly mystical which compelled me to read this text tonight, the very night I read the final 250 pages of Homer's Iliad, which Strindberg philosophizes about in depth here. I read his descriptions of unusual occurrences happening to him alerting him to the presence of an unseen world, which he likened to the devil playing tricks on him to the point that he questions his own sanity, and I was reminded of my own involvement in mysteries involving scanning the aisles of Grand Union for my mother and playing inside rack of clothing in Caldor's department stores in New City, NY. I related to his account of his days walking the streets of Paris to my days tramping the streets of New York at night, searching for celebrated city people and only meeting the least invigorating; I was amused at his discovery that Swedenborg has become a Catholic convert, his book on Conjugal Love leading him from acts of faith acts of conscience....

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag vinglar fram och tillbaka mellan 3 och 4 stjärnor, eftersom stilen både är den största tillgången och det största problemet; stilen är så fantastiskt överskriven, oläsligt läsbar på bästa sätt, att jag inte riktigt vet vad som händer. Strindberg reser till Paris från Lund och upplever religiöst, ockult mumbojumbo och läser Swedenborg? tror jag? Men det är, som sagt, ett så fruktansvärt, glänsande språk.

[August Sparresäter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Från och till ganska fin, från och till löjeväckande och ibland lite intressant. Handlar mycket om konstiga saker han hör och övertolkar om nätterna.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fem stjärnor (vilket skulle betyda att Inferno får sex) så att hans astrala gestalt blir mjukis mot mä’

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46397

Part two of The Inferno.

My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kimmo Sinivuori · Rating 3 out of 5]

August Strinberg’s Legends was published in 1898 and is a sequel to his autobiographical novel Inferno published the same year. In these notes we find the famous playwright hitting the bottom. His second marriage to Austrian newspaperwoman Frida Uhl has resulted in divorce, as did his first to Finnish actress Siri Wrangel. He is a nervous wreck, which is not helped by heavy drinking, and his finances are in ruins. His long sojourn in Paris had been a period of absolute loneliness and inability to write. His return to Sweden and to the Southern university town of Lund didn’t help. In Paris, although he was suffering from solitude he was not criticized as in Lund, where the bourgeoisie and the academics considered him as a danger to the town’s youth.

In Paris, Strindberg had already started to study the occult including alchemy and had grown increasingly neurotic. His feeling of being a failure and not being able to support his children tormented him. He had started attaching meaning to the sounds he was hearing, esp. at night. All these sounds had an increasingly sinister meaning to him. Upon returning to Sweden and settling in Lund, Strindberg was getting more and more neurotic and started to show clear signs of paranoia. At times, he only managed to survive by being constantly drunk. This naturally increased his paranoia.

His salvation comes from studying the writings of Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, who founded the New Church (or Swedenborgianism). It was Swedenborg's writings that most likely prevented Strindberg from taking his own life. The Legends is an interesting book written by a very tormented man but the book fails to fulfil its promise due to that very reason – August Strindberg was mentally too fragile during the period of writing this book to make it into something more substantial.

[Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strindbergs omvändelse