Tavaststjerna, Karl August

(1860-1898)

   A Finland-Swedish poet, novelist, and short story writer, Tavaststjerna came from an upper-class background and became interested in literature while a student in Helsinki. He had his literary debut with a collection of poetry, För morgonbris (1883; With the Morning Breeze), which was followed by Nya vers (1885; New Verses), poems written in a rather old form inherited from his great predecessor Johan Ludvig Runeberg.His novel Barndomsvänner (1886; Childhood Friends) offers a partly naturalistic account of the lives of weary dreamers in Helsinki, and the short stories in En inföding (1887; An Aboriginee) and Iforbindelser (1888; In Connections) provide his comments on Finland's cultural and political dependency. Marin och genre (1890; Marine and Genre Paintings), a volume of stories and sketches, celebrates Finnish nature.

   Some of the poetry in Dikter i vantan (1890; Poems While Waiting) is patriotic, while other poems are intensely personal. The novel Harda tider (1891; Hard Times) is a depressing tale of poverty, trickery, and eventually murder, while Kvinnoregemente (1894; Rule by Women) satirizes the romantic attitude some city-bred Finnish intellectuals had toward the peasantry. The growing decadence of European literature of the 1890s is visible in the novel Iforbund med doden (1893; In League with Death). En patriot utan fosterland (1896; A Patriot without a Homeland) takes aim at internationalism. Tavaststjerna's final prose work was an autobiographical narrative, Lille Karl (1897; Little Karl).