Summerbook #6: It is Acceptable (Det Går An)

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Wow, I hate this cover. 
 Look at them simpering!
Det Går An/It is Acceptable, by  C. J. L. Almqvist

Long ago in college, I read a lot of Scandinavian literature, and one of my favorites was the Romantic
novel The Queen's Diadem (Drottnigens juvelsmycker).  The only other work of Almqvist I've been able to track down in English is Det Går An/It is Acceptable, also published as Sara Videbeck.  This was a scandalous story in 1838 and led to Almqvist's removal from his position in the church.

It all starts on a ferry; sergeant Albert notices a self-possessed young woman, clearly out on business.  They get to talking, and Sara tells him about her life running the family glassworks.  Soon they are good friends, and decide to travel together.  Nothing much happens except that they build a mutually respectful friendship, and when Albert wants to marry Sara, she argues that marriage is a trap, and they'd be much better off keeping their respective jobs and property separate -- but he can come and rent the upstairs room in her house and they'll have a relationship.  Not one word is exchanged about what this relationship will entail and what they'll do if children arrive, so it's a bit frustrating to the modern reader.

But in 1838 this was dynamite.  It made a big splash and sparked a long strong of imitators; in fact, much of the 19th and early 20th Swedish literature I read in college involved novels arguing for free love to escape the trap of marriage (in which women became legally their husbands' property and without rights or anything of their own).

Now, the other thing I've read by Almqvist is this extremely convoluted, dashing, romantic novel in which mystery and symbolism are all over the place.  It was very influential in German Romanticism.  This novel is just about the opposite; it's extremely realistic and rational to the point of being kind of boring.  Almqvist was making a moral and societal argument about women's rights, and he didn't want any emotional stuff getting in the way.  It's all logic and respectability around here.

It wasn't really very exciting for a modern, but I'm glad to have read this, and it certainly illuminates some things about Scandinavian literature.  I'm annoyed that there isn't more of Almqvist's work translated into English; this is all there is to read in translation.

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