Almquist, Carl Jonas Love

Almquist, Carl Jonas Love (kärl y`näs l`və älm`kvĭst), 1793–1866, Swedish writer. He was one of the few Swedish authors developing the novel in the period 1830–50. At first a somewhat bizarre romanticist, inclined toward anarchy, he later became more concerned with realism and democracy. This transition is seen in The Book of the Thorn Rose (14 vol., 1832–51), which contains most of his novels, stories, plays, and poems. The collection includes The Queen's Diamond Ornament (1834), a masterpiece of Scandinavian literature; its heroine, the androgynous Tintomara, embodies Almquist's skeptical attitude toward conventional sex roles. Sara Videbeck (1839, tr. 1919), an important feminist novel, is thought to have led to his exile. In his varied career he was civil servant, teacher, clergyman, and socialist. Accused of forgery and suspected of murder, he fled to the United States and after 1865 lived in Bremen as Professor Westermann.

Bibliography

See B. Romberg, Carl Jonas Love Almquist (1977).