''Rautatie'' (

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

for "

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

") is the first novel by the

writer

Juhani Aho Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt (11 September 1861 – 8 August 1921), was a Finnish author and journalist. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature twelve times. Early life Juhani Aho was born at Lapinlahti in 1861. His pa ...

, published in 1884. Its style has been called national miniature realism. The novel is about the quiet life of a couple living in the middle of the woods and their attempts at imagining what a railroad is based on what they have heard. ''Rautatie'' is one of the classics of

Finnish literature Finnish literature refers to literature written in Finland. During the European early Middle Ages, the earliest text in a Finnic language is the unique thirteenth-century Birch bark letter no. 292 from Novgorod. The text was written in Cyrilli ...

, and has had more than twenty editions by the start of the 21st century. It has been called Aho's first "artistic full hit". In 2007, WSOY published a perfect copy of the 1892 colour edition illustrated by

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris ''Expositi ...

. A TV film by the same name was made based on the novel in 1973. The novel has also been adapted to numerous plays. The central elements in ''Rautatie'' are the imaginations of small-time agrarians and the differences between poor, far-away places and richer places, and the social gap between the "lords" and the "common people". One important element is over-use of

alcoholic beverage An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The c ...

s, which is a common theme in Finnish literature as the start of decadent events.

Background

''Rautatie'' was written in spring and summer 1884 and published in December in the same year. Aho had become familiar with the "common people" in his home village of

Vieremä Vieremä is a municipality of Finland in the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Municipality is unilingually Finnish. Ponsse, one of the world� ...

Iisalmi Iisalmi (; sv, Idensalmi) is a town and municipality in the region of Northern Savonia in Finland. It is located north of Kuopio and south of Kajaani. The municipality has a population of (), which makes it the second largest of the five towns ...

from 1876. Starting from his

matriculation Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now ...

in 1880 he had frequently travelled by train between his home and

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. People living in far-away places attached fantasy to the railroad in their minds. The railroad was a subject of political controversy during the diets in the 1880s, which Aho closely followed as a journalist. Aho's closest friends included the Järnefelt family, whose critic significantly influenced the artistic form of ''Rautatie''. Especially Kasper Järnefelt was involved in fixing the miniature novel page by page.

Minna Canth Minna Canth (; born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnson; 19 March 1844 – 12 May 1897) was a Finnish writer and social activist. Canth began to write while managing her family draper's shop and living as a widow raising seven children. Her work addresse ...

praised ''Rautatie'' as a masterpiece already when it was first published. She got to read the script in August 1884.

Notes

There have been hundreds of thousands of copies of ''Rautatie'' printed in its original Finnish. An English translation by Owen Witesman was published in 2013 as ''The Railroad''. It has also been translated to

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

(''Järnvägen''),

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

(''Raudtee''), German (''Die Eisenbahn'') and to four other languages. The Finnish edition has also been published as ''Rautatie eli Kertomus ukosta ja akasta, jotka eivät olleet sitä ennen nähneet'' ("The railroad, that is a tale of a man and a woman, who had not seen it ever before"). ''Rautatie'' has also been published as a free

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

. The

Kuopio Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...

part of the Savonia railroad was opened in 1902, and the Lapinlahti railway station was also opened at the time. When Aho was writing his first novel, the railroad part was still being planned.

Sources

* Laitinen, Kai: ''Suomen kirjallisuuden historia'', Otava, * Kodin suuret klassikot, Juhani Aho part I, Weilin+Göös, 1989, {{ISBN, 951-35-4816-3
Archive.org/rautatie

Yle.fi

References

19th-century Finnish novels 1884 novels Novels set in Finland 1884 debut novels