LAGERLÖF, SELMA. - Swedish writer, b. at Mårbacka on 20 Nov. 1858, d. there on 16 March 1940. Doctor honoris causa of the University of Uppsala in 1907, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909, and in 1914 became a member of the Swedish Academy, which until then had been closed to women. Together with V. von Heidenstam - her superior in art but not in humanity - she is one of the principal representatives of the idealistic neo-romantic current which around 1890, in Sweden, opposed, in the name of beauty and of the values of the spirit, the realism that dominated literature and the materialism triumphant everywhere.
Her fame is especially linked to the novel Gösta Berlings Saga ("The Saga of Gösta Berling", Stockholm 1891), a poetic narration of the legends of her native Värmland, which had filled the sad and fanciful childhood of a sickly little girl. There followed in 1894 the collection of short stories Osynliga länkar ("Invisible Links"). Having then left elementary teaching to devote herself exclusively to literary activity, L. sought inspiration also in distant countries: she thus wrote the novel Antikrists mirakler ("The Miracles of the Antichrist", ibid. 1897), set in Sicily, taking its starting point in part from the encyclical Rerum Novarum; and Jerusalem (2 vols., ibid. 1899-1900), whose protagonists were a group of Swedish peasants transplanted to Palestine following a wave of religious fanaticism and sustained in their new laborious existence by an absolute faith. Among her other works are remembered the romantic En herrgårdssägen ("Legend of a Manor", ibid. 1899) and Drottningar i Kungahälla ("The Queens at Kungahälla", ibid. 1899), the candid Christuslegender ("Legends of Christ", ibid. 1904), the sombre historical novel Herr Arnes penningar ("The Money of Arne", ibid. 1904). Known to every Swede since childhood is Nils Holgersson underbara resa genom Sverige ("The Wonderful Journey of Nils Holgersson through Sweden", ibid. 1906-1907); there follow En saga om en saga ("A Legend about a Legend", ibid. 1908), Liljecronas Hem ("The Home of Liljecrona", ibid. 1911), the hallucinatory tale Körkarlen ("The Coachman of Death", ibid. 1912), and the measured novel Kejsarn av Portugallien ("The Emperor of Portugallia", ibid. 1914). Works with a thesis, in defence of human ideals, are: Troll och människor ("Trolls and Men", ibid. 1915); Bannlyst ("Outcast", ibid. 1918), while bound to her native land are Mårbacka (ibid. 1922), and Löwensköldska ringen ("The Ring of the Löwenskölds", ibid. 1925-28).
Bibliography7 works
Alda Manghi