Excerpt from The Father (a Tragedy) Quelle blague, quelle lugubre blague que la vie. August strindberg. The shadow of the exceeding sorrow of living Which, in these latter days, hovers over the world-wide realm of letters has settled in deep darkness upon the literature of the far N orth. That literature is summed up for the general in the writings of Ibsen and Bjornson, and fairly adequately summed up, for in them is mirrored the spirit of the time and place. All that is most terrible, most tragic, most pessimistic in that spirit and place is incar nate in August Strindberg, the Swedish dramatist Whose work is here presented, I believe for the first time, to the English reading public. It would be absurd to claim for Strindberg equality With the master minds of the day. But pessimism has been and is still a mighty factor in literature. A power of evil, it may be, but a great power: a power that has at least brought letters into harmony With the keynote of modern existence. And Strindberg is the most pessimistic of living pessimists for Nietszche is living dead. That is his claim to dis tinction that is Why his work deserves study. Strindberg's pessimism is no reasoned philosophy of the mind: it is bitter conviction of personal experience. His way of life has been a veritable via dolorosa, a way, no doubt, of his own choosing, of his own making. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.