Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/368

350 blinde. (1718-73) has very skilfully imitated the style of the popular ballad in his song about Malcolm Sinclair.

In (1714-63) Sweden obtained in this period her first novelist. The whole literary life of Sweden had developed in such a way that although he was a contemporary of Richardson, Fielding and Smollet, still this author took his models from France. Both his great novels, "Adalrik och Göthilda" and "Thecla," which were exceedingly popular in their day, are discursive, have a tendency to teach moral lessons, and are upon the whole unsuitable for the taste of our time, but they contain many really fine passages and are so perfect in style that they must be remembered among the best prose works of this epoch. The choice of subject in these novels is also a matter of interest, for they have nothing in common with the topics which absorbed the attention of literary men in that time and they may be considered as a sort of precursors of the romantic school. "Adalrik och Göthilda" is a national heroic novel, while "Thecla," which is by far the better one of the two, is based on a mediæval legend, and is completely on romantic ground. (1746-68) is a decided contrast to the half pietistic and didactic Mörk. His novel "Min Son på Galejen" (my son on the galley), the description of a sea voyage which the author had made to the East Indies as a chaplain in the navy, abounds in rollicking humor, and on account of its graphic descriptions and grand outlines it still remains a favorite book in Sweden. On the other hand his great drama "Susanna," which is written wholly in the French style, has been utterly forgotten.

In the field of this period produced many great men who not only by their researches promoted the interests of science, but who also by their activity were of vast import-