Hjalmar Söderberg

Each of the four essays reprinted here was written for a specific occasion and together comprise only the smallest selection from a larger corpus questioning commodity and energy-intensive economies. The essays are presented thematically instead of chronologically to offer a better view of the sweep of Illichs argument. In the first two, "War against Subsistence" and "Shadow Work," Illich reveals both the ruins on which the economy is built and the blindness of economics which cannot but fail to see it. The second two essays, "Energy and Equity" and "The Social Construction of Energy," unearth the nineteenth century invention and subsequent consequences of energy thought of as the unseen cause of all work whether done by steam engines, humans, or trees. The science of ecology relies on this assumption and, as Illich explained, unwittingly fuels the addiction to energy. The close dance of energy consumption and economic growth is characteristic of not just industrially geared societies. After all, energy consumption steadily increases even in so-called post-industrial societies, fueling the fortunes of Google and Apple no less than Wal-Mart.

Henning Mankell described The Serious Game as one of Swedens lost classics. Soderberg wrote a contemporary novel. He wants the reader to look upon that time and to understand that love is not a secluded island, it is always affected by the big world; by society; politics, disasters and scandals. Arvid, an educated and ambitious young man, meets Lydia, the daughter of a landscape painter; it is summer, they are young, and they fall in love. Lydia, however, has other suitors, and Arvid is frightened of being tied to her, afraid of his emotions. Instead, they part and both conduct marriages of convenience. Years later, trapped inside loveless marriages, the two struggle to rekindle the passion and promise of their early relationship, but with bitter and tragic results. A work of tremendous insight, tenderness and gentle irony.

First published in 1905, DOCTOR GLAS is about a respected doctor and his loathing for the local minister. When the minister's wife comes to Doctor Glas for advice about her husband's sexual practices, the doctor sees an opportunity to destroy his enemy.

«Imaginen el clásico drama decimonónico protagonizado por un viejo tiránico, su hija o su joven esposa desventurada y el canalla que la pretende, como ocurre en Eugenia Grandet de Balzac o Washington Square de Henry James, pero invocado esta vez por una sensibilidad similar a la de un Strindberg o un Ingmar Bergman y empezarán a hacerse una idea de la fuerza y el candor de esta punzante obra maestra de la literatura del norte de Europa». SUSAN SONTAG

La història de desig i traïció més famosa i perdurable de Suècia.En la Suècia de final del segle XIX, l’Arvid, un jove ambiciós i amb una bona formació, coneix la Lydia, la filla d’un pintor, durant

Una noia jove, casada amb un pastor protestant vell i detestable, confessa al seu metge el calvari que suposa per a ella el seu matrimoni. El doctor, home solitari, retret i que no ha estat mai amb cap dona, pren la determinacio dajudar-la, tot i que aixo pot comportar-li greus consequencies. Escrita en forma de diari personal, aquesta novella, que lany 1905, quan es va publicar a Suecia, va aixecar molta polseguera entre les classes benestants, planteja sense embuts i amb una visio extremament moderna algunes de les xacres de la societat que la majoria, emparant-se amb la delusoria moral, prefereix dissimular.

El juego serio, publicada en Suecia en 1912 –casualmente el año de la muerte de otro delos grandes escritores del país, Strindberg–, es una de las cimas narrativas de Hjalmar Söderberg, una bellísima

Primera novela de Hjalmar Söderberg, uno de los mejores escritores suecos de la historia. Martin Birck es un joven introspectivo y melancólico que sueña con ser poeta. Novela de aprendizaje sobre