Novel
The Rose of Tistelon
Rosen på Tistelön
Emilie Flygare-Carlén · 1842
Synopsis
On a stormy night, the smuggler Håkan Haraldsson, from the island of Tistelön in the Bohuslän archipelago, goes out with his two sons to carry a cargo of silk to the mainland. Stopped by a customs launch, the father and the elder son, Birger, kill the whole crew; the younger, Anton, witnesses the scene, seized with horror. Years later, Gabriella, called the rose of the island for her beauty and the only one who does not know of the crime, falls in love with Arve, the son of the murdered officer.
Context
It was her brother who suggested that she draw on her childhood memories and told her of an old trial, the starting point of the plot. The novel appeared in 1842 with N. H. Thomson and was at once translated into German; it was then the first Swedish book rendered into Hungarian, then passed, through German, into Dutch and English. In France, it appeared in 1845 under the title Les Smogglers suédois, translated by F. Coquille, then in 1876 under that of La Rose de Tistelön. In 1930 it was still among the most widespread novels in Swedish homes. Cinema has adapted it four times, notably Mauritz Stiller in 1913 and Victor Sjöström in 1916.
Who it is for
A long novel, in nineteenth-century Swedish, constructed as an adventure novel; there are old French and English translations.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by Göran Hägg as the masterpiece of its author, and the first Swedish book translated into Hungarian.
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