The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Carlén, Emilia Smith Flygare

CARLÉN, kär-lān', Emilia Smith Flygare, Swedish novelist: b. Strömstad, 8 Aug. 1807; d. Stockholm, 5 Feb. 1892. In 1827 she married a physician named Flygare. In 1838 she published

her first novel, &lsquo;Waldemar Klein,&rsquo; and among the best of her subsequent works are the &lsquo;Professor&rsquo; (1840); &lsquo;A Year&rsquo; (1846); &lsquo;The Brother's Bet&rsquo;; and &lsquo;The Guardian&rsquo; (1851). Several of her novels have been translated into English. After his death in 1833, she decided to devote herself to literature. In 1841 she married J. G. Carlén, a lawyer and poet. After his death in 1875, her literary activity ceased altogether, although her salon had been the centre of literary life at the capital. In 1878 she published a volume of &lsquo;Reminiscences of Swedish Literary Life.&rsquo; She had clear insight into the conditions of human life, especially of life in the middle class, and she describes it with admirable fidelity. Characteristic are &lsquo;Gustav Lindorm&rsquo; (1839); &lsquo;The Rose of Tistelön&rsquo; (1842); &lsquo;The Maiden's Tower&rsquo; (1848), all translated into English. Consult Svanberg, &lsquo;E. F. Carlén&rsquo;; &lsquo;En studie&rsquo; (Stockholm 1912); Schoeldstroen, &lsquo;E. F. Carlén&rsquo; (ib. 1888).