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Anton Tammsaare (1878-1940) - originally Anton Hansen |
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Estonian writer, whose novel Tõde ja õigus I-V (1926-33) is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature. Tammsaare's social epic captured the evolution of Estonia from tsarist province to independent state. It was based partly on the author's own life and centered on the contrast between the urban bourgeoisie and hard-working peasantry. The protagonist, Indrek Paas, moves from a farm to a city, witnesses revolutionary upheavals, tries to find peace in marriage and the bourgeois life-style, but returns disappointed to his roots for a new start. Although a realist at heart, Tammsaare also wrote artistic fairy tales and used allegorical fantasy in his stories. In his popular novel The Misadventures of the New Satan (1939) he combined rural Estonian life with Biblical themes, mythology and folklore. "... The very first spring, when the prison was built, a nightingale began to sing in an alder-tree in front of the prison-house. Anton Tammsaare was born in Albu, the son of Peeter Hansen (1841-1920), a farmer, and Ann Hansen (née Backhoff). Anton was was the fourth child of a family on twelve children. His father had bought on hire purchase a stony and swampy farm, and decided to make it prosper, in spite of an ongoing quarrel with his neighbor, Jakob Sikenberg. With the
help of his family and by working in different jobs, Tammsaare managed
to collect enough money for his education in at the Hugo Treffner
Gymnasium in Tartu. He graduated at the age of 23.
Tammsaare's first stories were published in the newspaper Postimees in 1900 under the name A. Hansen. A few years later he changed his name into A.H. Tammsaare. Tammsaare was never a member of the Noor-Eesti, but he
participated in its activities and contributed to its publications.
After
working as a journalist in Tallinn, where he made the acquaintance of such cultural and political
figures as Konstantin Päts, Mihkel Martna, Eduard Vilder and Hans Pöögelman, he
entered the University of Tartu, where he studied law. Tammsaare's
studies were interrupted by tuberculosis in 1911. Moreover, at
that time he lacked the motivation to complete his studies. Tammsaare
spent over a year
in a sanatorium in the Caucasus – his only journey abroad –
and the following six years in his brother's farm in Koitjärve, reading
works of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Homer. From Koitjärve he found the
name vargamäe, central in his novel Tõde ja õigus. In
1914, Tammsaare underwent a stomach operation. For the rest of his
life, he followed a strict diet and rested an hour and a half
after every meal. In 1918, when Estonia became independent, Tammsaare had moved to Tallinn. He lived the next 20 years with his family in a house situated between Köhler Street and Koidula Street. Käthe Weltman, whom he married, was a determined woman. She, before the writer knew about it, had announced their marriage in a newspaper advertisement. Käthe was eighteen years his junior. On Tamsaare's insistence, she devoted herself to being a housewife. In Tallinn Tammsaare wrote the works which have gained a permanent place in Estonian literature. Although he took his subjects from the history and life of the Estonian people, his novels have deep connections with the ideas of Henri Bergson, Jung and Freud, and such writers as Knut Hamsun, André Gide, D.H. Lawrence and F.E. Sillanpää. Tammsaare's early works are characterized by rural "poetic" realism. He continued the literary tradition of Vilde and Kitzberg, but he was interested as well in the psychology of his characters. Some of his stories also reflected the atmosphere of the revolutionary year of 1905. During his second period from 1908 to 1919, he wrote several short urban novels and collections of miniatures. In Poiss ja liblik (1915, The Boy and the Butterfly) Tammsaare was clearly influenced by Oscar Wilde. Unfortunately, Tammsaare's fiction did not fit well into the aesthetics of the leading literature theorist Friedebert Tuglas,
who reviewed his books as they appeared and criticized his
narrative techniques, style and structure of the stories.
"There
is too little art in Tammsaare's work," he claimed. As a result,
it took some extra time before Tammsaare began to receive public
recognition. Their debate went on in the Estonian press but also
in Finland Aino Kallas criticized Tammsaare in her book Nuori-Viro: muotokuvia ja suuntaviivoja (1918). To defend his artistic reputation Tammsaare published in the newspaper Vaba maa
a wide article, 'Avalik kiri kirjanik A.H. Tammsaarele' (1927), in
which he mocked the idea that literature should carry a message. Tammsaare's works from the 1920s explore moral concerns. In his drama Juudit (1921) the heroine kills Holofernes for selfish motives. Unlike the heroine in the Bible, Tammsaare's Judith hides her true motives under patriotic phrases – she wants to become the ancestress of a new dynasty, and kills Holofernes in revenge when the famous general rejects her. Kõrboja peremees (1922, The Master of Kõrboja) was set in the rural milieu especially close to his heart. The love story of a young man from the country and an educated young woman ends tragically. According to Tammsaare, the first volume of Tõde ja õigus (Truth and Justice) depicts man's struggle with the earth, the second with God, the third with society, the fourth with himself – the fifth ends with resignation. Tammsaare's view was skeptical, in general he saw things as a natural scientist would, his approach being biological rather than psychological. Although the work was deeply rooted in Estonian life, it dealt with many contemporary literary and philosophical issues. With Tõde ja õigus Tammsaare gained a reputation as one of the most original thinkers and novelists in northern Europe. The last two volumes especially contained more reasoning on the struggle for truth and justice than autobiographical material. In Tõde ja õigus Tammsaare draws an ironic portrait of urban intellectuals who have absorbed bourgeois mores and abandoned their moral principles. The novel was written in a time which saw the rise of dictators – Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini – and the decline of truth and justice. Indrek, the protagonist, is not a man of action, but through his life story Tammsaare examines the same humanistic ideals of the early 20th century as Romain Roland, Thomas Mann and John Galsworthy do in their works. In the first part Indrek is actually a minor character, while the protagonist is his father, Andres Paas wiht his first wife Krõõt, who dies after giving birth to their first son. Anders, who wants to defend what he considers right, eventually loses his vision of right and wrong, and manages to cheat his archenemy, Pearu. Indrek enters in the second part a private school in a town, actually Tartu, although Tammsaare doesn't mention its name. Indrek falls in love with Ramilda, the daughter of the school director. She dies of tuberculosis and Indrek is expelled from the school after writing an atheistic article. In the third part Indrek participates in the revolutionary events of 1905 but is terrified by its frenzy. The fourth part is set in independent Estonia. Indrek has married Karin; they have two children. After he finds out that Karin has been unfaithful, he nearly kills her. Indrek is released on probation. Karin dies in a traffic accident. In the fifth part Indrek returns to his native village. In the 1930s, Tammsaare published such neo-realistic novels as
Elu
ja armastus (1934, Life and Love) and Ma armastasin
sakslast (1935,
I Loved a German), a love story between Erika, a German baroness, whose
family has lost their fortune, and Oskar, a poor Estonian student.
Based on German sources, Hiina ja hiinlane (1938) introduced China, its history and people to Estonian readers. The play Kuningal on külm
(1936, The King Feels Cold) was about an old king who suffered from cold, and warned, in the
form of a religious idol (a double-headed calf ), of the threats posed
by anti-democratic movements. His last and most widely read work was
Põrgupõhja uus vanapagan
(1939, The Misadventures of the New
Satan), a satirical novel about the Satan who becomes a farmer named
Ants to win a
bet with St. Peter. But even with his superhuman physical strength the
Satan has problems with a world full of demagogy and hypocrisy. The
cunning, deceitful Kaval-Ants, who destroys his good-natured neighbour
Jürka and his family, has become an archetypal character in Estonia.
All his books Tammsaare wrote with an ink pen; he never learned to use a typewriter. He was able to read in six foreign languages; Shakespeare and Goethe in particular influenced him deeply. Tammsaare also translated works from writers such as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad. In addition to his work as a novelist, he was for many decades a prolific publicist and essayist. Tammsaare died suddenly on March 1, 1940, at his desk, still holding his pen. His funeral was a national event. Devoted to his writing, Tammsaare avoided publicity, and when his 50th birthday was celebrated at the Estonia theatre, the author never appeared on the scene.
Selected works:
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