Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=fuUsAAAAMAAJ
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Arne
A Happy Boy
A Fisher Lass
The Bridal March, & One Day
Magnhild, & Dust
Captain Mansana, & Mother's Hands
Absalom's Hair, & A Painful Memory
In God's Way (2 vols.)
Heritage of the Kurts (2 vols.)
Upon his taking up his residence in Paris, in 1882, Björnson resumed aninterest in prose fiction, which he had for so many years abandoned infavour of the drama. There can be no question that he was influenced inthis by the successes of Alexander Kielland and Kristian Elster, whohad begun to deal with the problems of Norwegian life in the form ofshort novels, which attracted immense public curiosity. After writingDust (1882), a very brief episode, Björnson started the compositionof his earliest long novel, which he finished and published in 1884, asDet flager i Byen og paa Havnen ("Flags are Flying in Town andHarbour"), a title for which we have ventured to substitute, as moredirectly descriptive, The Heritage of the Kurts. It is to be observedthat, with the exception of Jonas Lie's Livsslaven (which was not yetpublished when Björnson's book was begun), The Heritage of the Kurtswas the earliest novel, treating Scandinavian society on a large scale,which any Norwegian writer had essayed to produce. This may explain acertain cumbrousness in the unwinding of the plot, which has been notedas a fault in this very fine and elaborate romance.
The didactic character of much of the novel, especially of the laterparts, was a surprise to contemporary readers, who were accustomed tomuch lighter fare from the novelists of the day. No less a personagethan the great Danish writer, J. P. Jacobsen, joined in the outcryagainst "all this pedagogy and all these problems." Physiologicalinstruction in girls' schools,--this seemed a strange and almostunseemly subject for a romance addressed to idle readers in Copenhagenand Christiania. But Björnson's serious purpose was soon perceived andjustified, and the popularity of The Heritage of the Kurts was assuredamong the best appreciators of his genius. It will