Novel
Juha
Juhani Aho · 1911
Opening lines
Mies—pitkäselkä, rohdinpaita, virsujalka—hakkaa kaskea korkean vaaran rinteellä.
A man, long-backed, in a coarse linen shirt, with birch-bark shoes, is clearing a burn-beat on the slope of a high hill.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
On an isolated farm at the edge of the rapids, at a time when Finland still belonged to Sweden, the farmer Juha, much older than she is, has taken in and raised Marja, an orphan from Karelia, and then married her despite his mother's opposition. Marja grows weary of this life. One day Shemeikka arrives at the farm, a travelling merchant from White Karelia, a smooth talker and seducer, who lets her glimpse another existence on the other side of the border.
Context
It was published by Otava on 10 April 1911 and went through four printings in the year; its author established his role as national writer with it. It has been judged both one of his most classic and one of his most modern books. Sibelius declined to make an opera of it in 1914; that of Aarre Merikanto was rejected by the National Opera in 1922, and that of Leevi Madetoja was premiered in 1935. Cinema has brought it to the screen four times: Nyrki Tapiovaara, from a screenplay by Heikki Aho, son of the author; then a film of 1956, the first Finnish feature film in colour; finally Aki Kaurismäki, as a silent film, in 1999.
Who it is for
A novel of under three hundred pages, in Finnish, available in French under the title L'Écume des rapides. A dark tale, driven by nature and by three characters.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the great classics of Finnish prose, it is one of the most important books by its author.