Bremer, Fredrika

(1801-1865)

   A Swedish novelist, Bremer has her roots in the romantic worldview. While the romantics often focus on the glorious past of the nation or on the rural people, however, Bremer depicted middle- and upper-class family life as she knew it. Her first book was a collection of stories, Teckningar utur hvardagslifvet (1828; Scenes from Everyday Life), which she wrote in order to finance charitable work. Her domestic novel Famillen H*** (1830-1831; tr. The H— Family, 1853) makes it clear that she saw the home both as the center of human life and as the focus of her writing.

   The novels Presidentens dottrar (1834; tr. The President's Daughters) and Nina (1835; tr. 1843) make use of her own negative experiences. In a manner similar to that of Norwegian novelist Camilla Collett, Bremer describes the pressure put on daughters to marry according to the wishes of their parents. The novels were not well received. The epistolary novel Grannarna (1837; tr. The Neighbours, 1972), on the other hand, which promotes tolerance and respect among people of different ages and social backgrounds, was less strident and more to the liking of her audience. It depicted idyllic family life at a Swedish manor and offered a stark contrast to the type of home that Bremer had grown up in. The ideas expressed in Hemmet (1839; tr. The Home, or Life in Sweden, 1853) are similar; Bremer continues to advocate for the right of women to govern themselves, which, to a minimal extent, Swedish women received in 1858 when a law was passed that granted unmarried women legal responsibility when they reached the age of 25. Syskonliv (1848; tr. Brothers and Sisters, 1848) is a further expression of Bremer's idealism as a social reformer.

   Bremer traveled widely in the United States during the years 1850-1851, and her epistolary novel about her experiences, Hemmen i nya varlden (1853; tr. The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America, 1854), offers an interesting, balanced portrait of American life. Her final novel, Hertha, eller en sjals historia (1856; tr. Hertha, 1856), was found by many readers to be too realistic in its portrayal of social conditions and too radical in its demands for reform. It has since been recognized as one of Scandinavia's earliest and most interesting feminist novels.