Novel
The Surgeon's Stories
Fältskärns berättelser
Zacharias Topelius · 1867
Opening lines
Genom Tysklands och Sveriges historia återklingar sedan århundraden ett namn, vid hvars minne Svensken reser sitt hufvud högre och den frihetsälskande Tysken blottar af beundran sitt. Det är Leipzig, Breitenfeld, och den 7 September 1631.
Through the history of Germany and Sweden there has echoed for centuries a name at whose memory the Swede lifts his head higher and the freedom-loving German bares his in admiration. It is Leipzig, Breitenfeld, and the 7th of September 1631.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from litteraturbanken.se
Synopsis
In the evening, an old army surgeon, Andreas Bäck, tells stories to a circle of listeners. His tales follow, over several generations, two families of Finland, the noble Bertelsköld and the Larsson, commoners, from the Thirty Years' War to the early years of the reign of Gustav III. Between them passes a copper ring that belonged to King Gustavus Adolphus, bearing a power and a curse, and bringing fortune or misfortune to whoever holds it.
Context
It appeared as a serial in Helsingfors Tidningar, from 29 October 1851 to 19 May 1866, with interruptions sometimes of a year, then in volumes from 1853 to 1867. The manner of Walter Scott was recognised in it, to the point that one now speaks of a Scott-Topelian tradition of the Finnish historical novel. A revised edition illustrated by Carl Larsson and Albert Edelfelt appeared in 1883-1884. The first cycle gave its author the material for his drama Regina von Emmeritz, premiered in 1853. The cycle was translated into Finnish from 1867 to 1882, and into English in Chicago in the 1880s.
Who it is for
Five cycles, in Swedish, in six volumes. You have to like nested stories and accept that a storyteller will break off to comment on what he is telling.
Prizes and reception
The most popular of his books; it founded in the country the tradition of the historical novel derived from Scott.