Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/411

Rh omantic school that no restraints must be put on the imagination was carried out to its last extremity, and in no other poet do we meet with a play of the fancy, so capricious, so arbitrary and so grotesque at times as in Almquist. His own utterance on this point is very characteristic: "I paint thus, because it pleases me to paint thus." The most of his works are captivating in spite of the strange subjects chosen, on account of the gorgeous images which he knows how to conjure forth, on account of the masterly style, and on account of the wealth of new, original thoughts. But few of his works give undivided satisfaction, for in many of them he ruthlessly and in a revolting manner tramples into the dust all that is noble and best, and the circumstance that his geniality always throws a splendid veil over the demon makes him a very dangerous writer. The two stories named above are, however, not of this vicious sort. By his attempt at founding a colony in Värmland, he showed his dissatisfaction with the existing state of things, and thus he also attacks in his writings Christianity, marriage, etc., and these attacks are the more offensive when it is found that in other works he presents opposite views. For this reason the antipathy against him was continually increasing, and when in 1839 he had published his novel "Det går an" (It will do), in which he advocates free love as against marriage, the disgust broke out in open attacks and as a consequence he lost his position. He now threw himself with all his strength into the periodical press and in numerous articles he presented his revolutionary doctrines, and by the force of circumstances he was drawn deeper and deeper into these troubles until he finally was obliged to leave the country.

Almquist's principal work, "Törnrosens bok, eller fria fantasier" is a rich collection of poems of the most varied kind. Among those in epic form, "Arturs jagt" and "Schems-el-Nihar" belong to the best productions in all Swedish literature. Among his dramas we must mention "Remido Marinesco," in which the son of Don Juan is represented as a