Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/288

270 make her literary début before she was fifty-three years old. It was the novel "Familien Polonius," which half for sport and anonymously she permitted to be printed in the journal edited by her son, "Flyvende Post," but her work met with such signal success that the author was encouraged to continue to write. She at the same time continued to write anonymously and assumed the nom de plume, "Forf. af en Hverdagshistorie" (the author of an every-day story), from the title of one of her most successful works. The subjects of her numerous novels have been taken almost exclusively from everyday life, the various doings of which, in all classes of society, she had had excellent opportunities to observe through a long life rich in personal experiences. Her refined intellectual culture, her natural amiability, her harmonious and humane view of life, which in many respects probably bears the stamp of the close of the eighteenth century, the time when she attained her intellectual maturity,—all impart to these pictures of life a strange charm. If to this we add her masterly style and careful and striking delineation of character, we easily understand why her works attained such wide popularity. To her best tales in addition to "En Hverdagshistorie" belong also "Dröm og Virkelighed" (dream and reality), "To Tidsaldre" (two generations), and "Extremerne." The author attempted several times to put her materials in a dramatic dress, but did not succeed.

(1798-1865), known as author only by the pseudonym Carl Bernhard, was a nephew of Baroness Gyllembourg and thus a cousin of Heiberg. He, too, made his first modest attempt in the "Flyvende Post," and succeeding beyond all expectation, he henceforth devoted himself with great ardor to literary work. He did not possess the great talents which belonged to his aunt, and his work does not come up to her standard of excellence. Still, we always find in his tales a skilfully selected plot, developed in an easy