''Hingede öö'' (''All Souls' Night'' or ''Night of Souls'') is a novel by the

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n author

Karl Ristikivi Karl Ristikivi (; in Pärnumaa, Saulepi Parish, Lääne County (now Kilgi, Varbla Parish, Pärnu County) – 19 July 1977 in Solna, Stockholm) was an Estonian writer. He is among the best Estonian writers for his historical novels. Early lif ...

. It was first published in 1953 in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

by the exile publishing house

Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv (''Estonian Writers' Cooperative'') was a publishing house in Lund, Sweden. It was founded by members of the Estonian diaspora, mainly writers August Gailit, Bernard Kangro, Valev Uibopuu and Enn Vallak, in 1950 and ...

(''Estonian Writers' Cooperative''). The novel was first published in Estonia in the year 1991.

Synopsis

The novel comprises three parts, "Surnud mehe maja" (''The House of a Dead Man''), a briefer interlude entitled "Kiri proua Agnes Rohumaale" (''Letter to Mrs Agnes Rohumaa'') and "Seitse tunnistajat" (''The Seven Witnesses''). The novel is a

first-person narrative A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...

. In the first part, a nameless protagonist enters something resembling a concert hall in Stockholm a little before midnight on New Year's Eve and finds himself in a labyrinth of salons and staircases, meeting people from whom he feels alienated.

Eric Dickens The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

Ristikivi excerpt.
Estonian Literary Magazine, No. 30, spring 2010. The second part is written as a reply by the author to a letter sent by a fictional reader, Mrs Agnes Rohumaa. Apparently Mrs Rohumaa has expressed her dissatisfaction with the novel after reading the first part and the author feels obliged to reply and justify his writing. The last part describes a trial in which seven witnesses are called to give evidence, each for one of the

seven deadly sins The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things ...

. The last witness is the protagonist.

Reception and criticism

The novel has usually been considered

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

by critics. The author has said in the text of the novel that it can be read as a "realistic fairy tale".Andrus Org
Omadele sissekäik lubatud. Karl Ristikivi „Hingede öö” käsitlusvõimalusi koolis
Haridus 2007, no. 5-6, p. 27.

References

External links

* Karl Ristikivi
At the Border
(An excerpt of the translation of the novel into English by

.) Estonian Literary Magazine, No. 30, spring 2010. 1953 novels Novels by Karl Ristikivi Seven deadly sins in popular culture {{1950s-novel-stub