" The
story of "Magnhild," planned several years earlier, represents
Bjornson's return to fiction after a long dramatic interlude.
There are still peasants in this story, but they are different
from the figures of the early tales, and the atmosphere of the
work is modern. It turns upon the question of the mutual duties
of husband and wife, when love no longer unites them. The
solution seems to lie in separation when union has thus become
essentially immoral. "Captain Mansana" is a story of Italian
life, based, so the author assures us, on actual characters and
happenings that had come within the range of his observation during
his stay abroad. Its interest does not lie in any particular
problem, but rather in the delineation of the titular figure,
a strong and impetuous person whose character suggests that of
Ferdinand Lassalle, as the author himself points out to us in a
prefatory note. "Dust" is a pathetic little story having for
its central idea what seems like a pale reflection of the idea
of Ibsen's "Ghosts," which had appeared a few months before.
It is the dust of the past that settles upon our souls, and clogs
their free action. The special application of this thought is to
the religious training of children:--
"When you teach children that the life here below is nothing to
the life above, that to be visible is nothing in comparison with
being invisible, that to be a human being is nothing in comparison
with being dead, that is not the way to teach them to view life
properly, or to love life, to gain courage, strength for work,
and love of country.
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