The play,
"Geography and Love," which came between the two just described,
is an amusing piece, in the vein of light and graceful comedy,
which satirizes the man with a hobby, showing how he unconsciously
comes to neglect his wife and family through absorption in his
work. The author was, in a way, taking genial aim at himself
in this piece, a fact which his son Bjorn, who played the principal
part, did not hesitate to emphasize. "Paul Lange and Tora
Parsberg," the next play, deals with the passions engendered
by political controversy, and made much unpleasant stir in
Norwegian society because certain of the characters and situations
were unmistakeably taken from real life. After these plays
came "Laboremus" and "At Storhove," both concerned with
substantially the same theme, which is that of the malign
influence exerted by an evil-minded and reckless woman upon the
lives of others. From a different point of view, we may say that
the subject of these plays is the consecration of the home.
This has always been a favorite theme with Bjornson, and he has
no clearer title to our gratitude than that which he has earned
by his unfailing insistence upon the sanctity of family life,
its mutual confidences, and its common joys.
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