His female parts are especially well
done. His characters present themselves to the reader by unique
thinking and choice expressions. Students should analyze _The Father_
for this phase of character building. Note also the simplicity of the
words, sentences, paragraphs, and complete story arrangement, the
author's originality of story conception and expression, his short,
passionate, panting sentences, the poetic atmosphere that sweetens and
enriches his virile writing, and the correct, religious pictures he
paints of his beloved northland.
After having read a number of selections from Bjoernson, students will
see that he has a wonderful breadth of treatment for every imaginable
subject. He is so universal in his choice of subjects that Lemaitre in
his _Impressions of the Theatre_ half-humorously and half-ironically
puts these words in Bjoernson's mouth, "I am king in the spiritual
kingdom," and "there are two men in Europe who have genius, I and
Ibsen, granting that Ibsen has it."
GENERAL REFERENCES
_Adventures in Criticism_, A.T.Q. Couch.
_Essays on Modern Novelists_, William Lyon Phelps.
"Bjoernsoniana," _Dial_, January 16, 1903, pp. 37-38.
"Prophet-Poet of Norway," _Cosmopolitan_, April, 1903, pp. 621-631.
"Three Score and Ten," _Dial_, December, 1902, pp. 383-385.
COLLATERAL READINGS
_Lectures_, Volume I, John L. Stoddard.
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