Söderberg, Hjalmar

Söderberg, Hjalmar (yäl`mär sö`dərbĕr'yə), 1869–1941, Swedish writer. He is known for a lyrical but melancholic and disillusioned mood. Söderberg's first novel, Martin Birck's Youth (1901, tr. 1930), is the story of a dreamer living a drab middle-class existence. His novels are unsurpassed at evoking Stockholm life at the turn of the century; major examples include Doctor Glas (1905, tr. 1963) and the semidocumentary The Serious Game (1912). Söderberg's play Gertrud (1906) was made into a film by Carl Dreyer. Selections of the his short stories, mocking complacency and deceit, have been translated by C. W. Stork (1935) and Carl Lofmark (1987).