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August (Theodor) Blanche (1811-1868) |
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"A Swedish Mr. Pickwick," writer, reformist, and journalist, one of the central novelists of the 1850s in his country. Like Victor Hugo in France, August Blanche was an advocate of social reforms and a politician. He admired such persons as Engelbrekt, Napoleon, and Garibaldi, and in Sweden Carl XII. Among Blanche's best known works are Flickan i Stadsgården (1847), depicting the life of students, and Sonen af söder och nord: romantisk skildring fran revolutionen i Paris 1848 (1851, The son of north and south), an expression of the writer's ideals of freedom. Set in Paris during the 1848 uprising, it was his most ambitious novel. SKÅDESPELAREN (står med armarne i kors, August Blanche was born in Stockholm outside marriage – his
father,
Mårten Christoffer Bergvall, was a priest and his mother, Katarina
Hedberg, a servant girl, the daughter of a gredanier Bergvall married in 1813
Helena Kristina Fornander, a rich widow almost twenty years his senior;
the marriage was childless. Bergvall died in 1852 in Paris on a journey
with Blanche. He inherited the wealth of his father. Blanche was brought up by his stepfather Johan Jacob Blanck, a blacksmith, whom his mother married, and whose name Blanche adopted. Katarina was a devoted mother to his son, spared money to buy him books, and encouraged him in his studies. At school Blanche was a good student, but his years at the puritanical Klara school developed in him a lifelong hatred of corporal punishment, "en lärometod, som på samma gång dödar kärleken till lärdomen och lärare." (August Blanche och hans samtid by Nils Erdman, Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 1892, p. 21) In 1829 Blanche entered the University of Uppsala and in 1838 he took a degree in law, which began for him a career in the civil service. He worked first as an official and then as a journalist, contributing to several publications, Göteborgs Handelstidning (1839), Stockholms Figaro (1845-47), and Aftonbladet (1855-56). Between the years 1857 and 1863 Blanche published Illustrerad Tidning. Until 1842 Blanche was the editor of the liberal opposition
publication Freja. After becoming economically independent,
Blanche devoted himself to literature and made his breakthrough with
the play Positivhataren: lustspel med sång (1843).
He began to write for the stage at the right moment, and eventually he
became the most popular playwright of the mid-nineteeth century.
Dramatiska theatre had burned in 1825 and Anders Lindberg's Nya teatern
had opened in 1842. Blanche wrote several drama adaptations from
French, Austrian, or other sources. En trappa upp
och på nedra botten (1843) was based on Johann Nestroy's
(1801-1862) text. Magister Bläckstadius eller Giftermåls-annonsen
(1844) took its subject from Johan Ludvig Heiberg's (1791-1860)
work. Jernbäraren: skådespel
i 3 akter och 6 tablåer
(1845) was based on his own novel. The protagonist, Axelsson, is a poor
worker, who loves his daughter above all. She is seduced and Axelsson
kills her seducer and commits suicide. Herr
Dardanell och hans upptåg på landet (1845) was an
adaptation of Nestroy's work, which had been translated by L.A.
Malmgren. Like Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (1843) Blanche played with the idea of time travel in 1846 och 1946: Feeriskt lustspel i två akter och fyra tablåer (1846), at the Royal Djurgården Theatre on June 29, 1846. The main character of this "science-fiction vaudeville," Olof Bautastenius, believes that he is a great archeologist. He is sent to the future, to the year of 1946, but not by a spirit or a machine, but by the Goddess of Truth. Act II, scene 14 introduced the time travel paradox to the Swedish theater audience – perhaps for the first time. A young man tells that Olof Bautastenius was his grandfather. And he was mummified after death, donated to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and put on display beside a dromedary. Bautastenius says that he has only a daughter, and he is told that he married again in his old age. Upon learning his sad fate as an asylum inmate, Bautastenius returns back to his own time, determined to change the course of his life. At the end Bautastenius throws out of the window his antiquities, saying: "Antiqviteterna! Ja, det är de fördömda antiqviteterna, som äro orsaken till allt! Bort med dem! Jag vill aldrig se dem mer!" (1846 och 1946: feeriskt lustspel i två akter och fyra tablåer by August Blanche, Stockholm: Alb. Bonniers boktryckeri, 1892, p. 43) Komedianterna eller Ett resande Teatersällskap, about theater life in that time, premiered in 1848 at the Royal Dramatic Theater. This farce, based on the three-act French play Le roman comique, has held its popularity in repertoire. As a novelist Blanche was influenced by Eugene Sue and Alexandre Dumas (sr.); Den broderade plånboken (1845, The embroidered wallet) was a social in the spirit of Honoré de Balzac. He produced among others such routine novels as the melodramatic Vålnaden (1847), Banditen (1848; Engl. tr. The Bandit, 1872), which had as a background the revolutionary France of 1848, and Första älskarinnan (1848), about a woman torn between two rivals and her rise from humble origins to riches. Blanche's most enduring works are his short stories, which
give a
lively picture of everyday life and customs of his time. The four
volume Bilder ur verkligheten (1863-65, Pictures from
reality) depicted Stockholm and its surroundings. It was a collection
of his earlier stories, originally written for Illustrerad Tidning,
and appeared under the titles Hyrkuskens betättelser (Tales of a cabman), his best-known work of fiction, En
prästmans anteckningar, En skådespelares äventyr, and Strödda
anteckningar.
These good-natured short pieces were built around anecdotes, colorful
characters, or personal reminiscences. "Det var den härligaste
vinterdag. Brunnsviken, snöbetäckt och belyst av solen, prunkade av en
blädande glans, och skogarna vid dess stränder, liksom kanderade,
gnistrade av ljusets alla färgbrytningar. Det var en sjö av silver med
strand och lundar av diamant. Det var som om naturen denna dag velat
visa, att hon kan vara lika skön i vintern som i sommaren, lika härlig
i döden som i livet." (from 'Theodor Sandström,' in Hyrkuskens
berättelser, Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 1928, pp. 50-51) Blanche was a member of parliament, representing the estate of burgesses from 1859 to 1866, and gained fame with his oratorical skills. He was one of the leading radicals in Swedish politics. Blanche spoke for the abolition of dreath penalty and was in favour of religious freedom. He also expressed his support to Italian Risorgimento and other radical national movements. Blanche admired King Carl XII, but did not much appreciate Carl XIV Johan and Carl XIII, whom he despised. Blanche died in Stockholm on November 30, 1868. On the same day the statue of Carl XII was revealed – Blanche had also participated in the raising of the monument. The author had a heart attack in connection with the event. Students had decided to honor him with a song, Blanche led them in a procession along Drottninggatan (Gueen's way), and died suddenly on the street. For further reading: August Blanche och hans samtid by Nils Erdman (1892); August Blanche som stockholmsskildare by Martin Lamm (1931, second edition 1950), Ny illustrerad svensk litteraturhistoria III, ed. by E.N. Tigerstedt (1967); August Blanche och skarpskytterörelsen: en skiss by Anders Björnsson (1974); A History of Swedish Literature, ed. by Lars G. Warme (1996); Den Svenska Litteraturen, Volume 3, ed. by Lars Lönnroth and Sven Delblanc (1997); Vem är vem i svensk litteratur by Agneta & Lars Erik Blomqvist (1999); Blanche et la France: L'influence française sur l'oeuvre littéraire, journalistique et politique d'August Blanche, l'écrivain suédois le plus populaire de son temps by Antoine Guémy (2004); August Blanche: teaterman, författare och politiker: en biografi by Staffan Bjerstedt (2022); Den underbara revolutionen: August Blanche och ståndssamhällets fall by Bo Hammarlund (2023) Selected works:
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