Skipper Worse |
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| Author:
| Kielland, Alexander |
| Translator:
| John, Henry |
| Introduction by:
| Neilson, William
Boyesen, H.
Carpenter, William |
| Series title: | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-1-4923-9251-4 |
| Publication Date: | Sep 2013 |
| Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $8.99 |
Book Description:
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Much of the narrative of Skipper Worse hangs upon a religious movement in Norway, resulting from the labors of Hans Nilsen Hauge. At the end of the end of the 18th century, and at the beginning of the next, the clergy in Norway were dry Rationalists, unable to satisfy the religious cravings of the people, whom, moreover, they did not comprehend, and whose want of culture "they regarded with contempt. At that juncture, the uneducated son of a peasant, Hans Nilsen Hauge,...
More DescriptionMuch of the narrative of Skipper Worse hangs upon a religious movement in Norway, resulting from the labors of Hans Nilsen Hauge.
At the end of the end of the 18th century, and at the beginning of the next, the clergy in Norway were dry Rationalists, unable to satisfy the religious cravings of the people, whom, moreover, they did not comprehend, and whose want of culture "they regarded with contempt. At that juncture, the uneducated son of a peasant, Hans Nilsen Hauge, born in 1771, began to travel throughout the country, and, by means of his personal interactions and religious meetings, soon aroused a real Christian life among the common people.
The peasants ceased from violence and drunkenness, and applied themselves to labour. Throughout the country the movement began to consolidate itself in many centers, where manufactures and industrial enterprises thrived in diligent hands, and where workman and employer met together in brotherly love to search the Word of God.
It was intolerable to the official classes that the people should meet to help one another, both in spiritual and temporal affairs. The clergy secured the willing aid of lawyers, and, availing themselves of an old edict of 1741 against religious meetings, they caused Hauge to be taken up and imprisoned. For ten years he was kept in durance, and the only result of numerous judicial investigations was to bring renewed testimony to his blameless life, great abilities, and honourable character.
At last his enemies were compelled to release him, and to contented themselves with depriving him of the relics of his property and knew he was broken down in health by the length and rigors of his confinement. He lived but a few years after this, ill and suffering, but withal brave and cheerful to the last and died in 1824.
It was not until 1842 that the representatives of the people, in spite of the opposition of king, ministers, provincial authorities, university, bishops, deans, and clergy, procured the repeal of the edict of 1741.
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The works of Alexander L. Kielland have attained a deservedly high reputation among his countrymen, but it is to be regretted, both for the sake of the author and of others, that they are written in a language spoken only by some four million Norwegians and Danes, and seldom acquired by foreigners. Although a certain similarity of construction and expression exists between the English and Dano-Norwegian languages, no translation can hope to compass those sympathetic relations between author and reader which are indispensable to a just appreciation of the resources, versatility, and imaginative powers of Alexander L. Kielland.