INTRODUCTION.
Among the many remarkable writers whom Norway has produced in the latter half of the present century, Björnstjerne Björnson, Henrik Ibsen, and Alexander Kielland hold a position of undisputed pre-eminence. Björnson's name has been more or less familiar to English and American readers for twenty years past. His peasant novels have found several translators, and latterly some of his plays have been done into English. For at least fifteen years after his genius had attained its maturity, Henrik Ibsen remained practically unheard-of outside Scandinavia and Germany. Then, some three or four years ago, he suddenly leaped into worldwide—shall I say notoriety?—and is at the present moment one of the most eagerly discussed, if not the best understood, of European writers. Alexander Kielland is a younger man than Björnson and Ibsen (who are almost exactly contemporaries), and came to the front in literature fully twenty years later than they. Though two of his longer novels have been translated into English, he cannot
