Page:Tales of two countries.djvu/6

viii parallel lines. On the other hand, it proved that the author possessed the gift of sustained and consistent character-drawing, and that his talent was by no means confined to the thumb-nail sketch. His next book, Arbeidsfolk (Workpeople), published in 1881, was as well-knit as it was powerful. Its unflinching realism was a rock of offence to many worthy persons, but it established Kielland, once for all, on an eminence hitherto occupied only by Björnson and Ibsen. The remainder of his career I must briefly summarize. His principal works are Elsa, a Christmas Story, 1881; Skipper Worse, 1882; Two Novelettes from Denmark, 1882; Poison, 1883; Fortuna, 1884; Snow, 1886; St.John's Day, 1887; and Jakob, 1891—all novels; and three comedies, entitled Three Pairs, 1886; Betty's Guardian, 1887; and The Professor, 1888. In 1881 he sold his brickwork, and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to literature. From that date until 1883 he lived in Copenhagen; between 1886 and 1889 he pitched his tent in the environs of Paris. For the rest, he has made his birthplace, Stavanger, his headquarters. His personal life has been happily uneventful, except for a political contest which raged for two years around his name, though his own part in it was entirely passive. The matter