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August Strindberg. Born at Stockholm, January 22, 1849;died there, May 14, 1912. A Swedish dramatist and novelist,a leader of modern Swedish literature. Among his playsare "Master Olof" (1872), "Gilletshemlighet" (1880),"Fadren" (1887), "Froken Julie" (1888), "Glaubiger"(1889), "Till Damaskus" (1808), and a series of historicaldramas including "Gustavas Wasa," "Erik XIV.," "GustavasAdolphus," and "Carol XII." He wrote also "Roda rummet"(1879), "Det nya riket" (1882), which provoked so muchcriticism that the author left Sweden for a number ofyears; "Svenska folket HELG OCH SOKEN" (1882), "GIFTAS"(1884), "DIE BEICHTE EINES THOREN" (1893), "INFERNO"(1897), written after one of his periodical attacks ofinsanity; "EINSAM" (1903), an autobiographical novel; "DIEGOTISCHEN ZIMMER" (1904), and many other volumes. He hasbeen called "the Shakspere of Sweden."
—The Century Cyclopædia of Names.
CONTENTS
THE GERMAN LIEUTENANT
OVER-REFINEMENT
"UNWELCOME"
HIGHER AIMS
PAUL AND PETER
A FUNERAL
THE LAST SHOT
It was fourteen days after Sedan, in the middle of September, 1870. Aformer clerk in the Prussian Geological Survey, later a lieutenant inthe reserve, named Von Bleichroden, sat in his shirt-sleeves before awriting-table in the Café du Cercle, the best inn of the little townMarlotte. He had thrown his military coat with its stiff collar overthe back of a chair, and there it hung limp, and collapsed like acorpse, with its empty arms seeming to clutch at the legs of the chairto keep itself from falling headlong. Round the body of the coat onesaw the mark of the sword-belt, and the left coat-tail was rubbed quitesmooth by the sheath. The back of the coat was as dusty as a high-road,and the lieutenant-geologist might have studied the tertiary depositsof the district on the ed