Status Updates From Strindberg: A Life

During his morning walks he would take a box of morphia and a syringe in his pocket to conduct research en route. He thought he might be able to prove whether plants had nervous systems by injecting them with morphine. Once he was arrested when injecting apples hanging from a tree but he explained his scientific quest to the policeman who thought he was a madman and let him go.

He was an early supporter of women's rights, and he went a lot further than most people. But his 'equal marriage' to Siri is collapsing, and I suspect it won't end well.

Great opening line: "During the writing of this book it became apparent to me that outside Scandinavia Strindberg is best known for two things: Miss Julie and alarming misogyny."

I'm five pages in an he's already injecting apples with morphine, refusing to speak to his wife, and curious (but not worried) that his seven-year-old daughter almost witnessed the suicide of Georg Brandes's mistress.