''Fra Kristiania-Bohêmen'' (''From Christiania's Bohemia'') is a novel from 1885 by Norwegian writer

Hans Jæger Hans Henrik Jæger (2September 18548February 1910) was a Norwegians, Norwegian writer, philosopher and anarchist activism, activist who was part of the Bohemianism, bohemian group known as the Kristiania Bohemians. Biography Hans Henrik Jæge ...

. The book was confiscated shortly after its publication, and Jæger was sentenced to prison and lost his position as stenographer at the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

Plot

"The future’s premature child," Hans Jæger had called the bohemian in the preface to his book ''Fra Kristiania–Bohemen'' (1885; ''From the Christiania Bohemia'') which described the 'bohemians' as a small group of young intellectuals and artists out of step with a society that changed from day to day as modernisation and urbanisation advanced, but which was still marked by nineteenth-century bourgeois values and moral standards.

The novel is set in Christiania (Oslo), and deals with the everyday life of two friends, "Herman Ek" and "candidate Jarmann". They live in lodgings and spend their days drinking in cafés, discussing philosophy, literature and society reforms. "Jarmann" ends his life by committing suicide, shooting himself after spending his last night with a prostitute. The novel is a

roman à clef A ''roman à clef'' ( ; ; ) is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people and the "key" is the relationship between the non-fiction and the fiction. This m ...

, as the characters are easily recognizable as real people: "Ek" is Jæger himself, and "Jarmann" also has a corresponding real person.

Confiscation and trial

The book was immediately banned by the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

, and the police managed to confiscate most of the printed copies shortly after its publication. He lost his position as a stenographer at the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

. Jæger was defended in court by barrister Ludvig Meyer. Jæger was sentenced to sixty days imprisonment and a fine of , for infringement of modesty and public morals, and for

blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

. Jaeger had, a now-lost picture by

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

, with him in his prison cell while jailed, related to Edvard Munch: ''The Day After'' (1894); and Hans Heyerdahl: ''Mademoiselle with Champagne'' :File:Hans Olaf Heyerdahl - Champagnepiken.jpg (1881). He was also sentenced to 150 more days for printing the volume in Sweden. He avoided part of his imprisonment sentences by moving to Paris, where he spent most of the rest of his life. The

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

decision became the subject of a fierce debate. Liberal and conservative newspapers mostly supported the government's actions and the court decision, while intellectuals raised their voices in support of freedom of speech. The confiscation of ''Kristiania-Bohêmen'' sparked a debate on freedom of press in 1886 in the literary, cultural and political magazine ''

Nyt Tidsskrift ''Nyt Tidsskrift'' is a former Norwegian language, Norwegian literary, cultural and political periodical issued from 1882 to 1887, and with a second series from 1892 to 1895. The periodical had contributions from several of the leading intellectua ...

''. The novel gave its name to a

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

in Norway in the 1880s (in ), which included, in addition to Jæger,

Christian Krohg Christian Krohg (13 August 1852 – 16 October 1925) was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist. Krohg was inspired by the realism art movement and often chose motifs from everyday life. He was the director and s ...

, Gunnar Heiberg, Ludvig Meyer,

Arne Garborg Arne Garborg (born Aadne Eivindsson Garborg) (25 January 1851 – 14 January 1924) was a Norwegian writer. Garborg championed the use of Landsmål (now known as Nynorsk, or New Norwegian), as a literary language; he translated the Odyssey into i ...

and others. Their "program" was based on naturalism, and also included elements of socialism and anarchism. Discussions on morals and sexuality had started early in the 1880s, and the debate became even more heated after the confiscation of Jæger's book in 1885, of Krohg's novel '' Albertine'' in 1886, and the imprisonment of Jæger.

Re-issue

When the novel was re-issued in 1950, it spurred no debate or government action.

References

External links

*Jæger, Hans Henrik, 1854-1910
Fra Kristiania bohemen
Kristiania slo: Eget, 1885. via

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

*Jæger, Hans Henrik, 1854-1910
Fra Kristiania bohemen
Kristiania slo: Eget, 1885. via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

*Jæger, Hans Henrik, 1854-1910
Fra Kristiania bohemen
Kristiania slo: Eget, 1885. via

The Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...

*Jæger, Hans Henrik, 1854-1910
Kristiania-Boheme
Hamburg: Adolf Harms, 1921. via

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fra Kristania-Bohemen 19th-century Norwegian novels 1885 novels Novels set in Oslo Censorship in Norway

Plot

Confiscation and trial

Re-issue

See also

References

External links