LEVERTIN, OSCAR IVAR

(1862-1906)

A Swedish poet, novelist, short story writer, andcritic, Levertin had little sympathy with the interest in folk culture that came to the fore in the 1890s; he preferred the city and the Greco-Roman past. His role as a newspaper critic was of great significance to Swedish literature, and his wide reading and highly cultivated taste made him a central figure in Swedish literary life. He started out as arealistwith two collections of stories,Smamynt(1883; Small Change) andKonflikter(1985; Conflicts), but a meeting withVerner von Heidenstamhad a strong impact on him. Together Heidenstam and Levertin wrote the satirical essay "Pepitas brollop" (1890; Pepita's Wedding), which was published as a pamphlet and argued against the aesthetics ofnaturalismand in favor of a greater concern with the interior lives of literary characters.

Levertin's first poetry collection,Lengender och visor(1891; Legends and Songs), is characterized by his concern with the themes of love and death and exemplifies the subjectivism of the 1890s.Other volumes of poetry areNya dikter(1894; New Poems),Dikter1901; Poems),Kung Salomo och Morolf(1905; King Solomon and Morolf), and the posthumously publishedSista dikter(1907; Last Poems).

Livets fiender(1891; The Enemies of Life) is a decadent novel that shows influence from the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans (18481907), as well as from the DaneHermanBang's novelHaabløse Slægter(1880; Generations without Hope), in that the protagonist is a hypersensitive and nervous scion of a noble family in decline. Another brief novel isMagistrarne i Osteras(1900; The Scholars of Osterås). A collection of short stories from the same time period bears the titleRococo-noveller(1899; Rococo Stories).