“And yet I am one of those people who got stuck in Strindberg’s net,” writes Lena Einhorn in her introductory chapter to this book. “He has entered my sphere, without my inviting him in.”
“Getting to grips with August Strindberg – this hyperproductive, unstable bon vivant, this woman-hating, grandiose mastodont of an author – entails, whether you want it to or not, being transported into his world (and the era in which he lived) at lightning speed. And then have considerable difficulty getting out,” Lena Einhorn, the editor of this volume, goes on.
On Strindberg is a collection of stories about Sweden’s most famous author ever (and it’s highest paid painter internationally today), intended to give old and new readers a picture of this many-faceted, complicated man, who lived from 1849 to 1912. It is said that his contemporary Henrik Ibsen – whom Strindberg hated because of his prominence and feminism – could not write without having a portrait of Strindberg staring down at him.
On Strindberg is written by some of Sweden’s most famous authors. The stories follow Strindberg’s life, and this book can thus also be read as a biography of a person who never ceases to inspire controversy.
