



Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org
(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.)





THE SON OF A SERVANT

BY

AUGUST STRINDBERG

AUTHOR OF "THE INFERNO," "ZONES OF THE SPIRIT," ETC.


TRANSLATED BY CLAUD FIELD


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

HENRY VACHER-BURCH

G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1913




CONTENTS


     I.    Fear and Hunger
    II.    Breaking-In
   III.    Away from Home
    IV.    Intercourse with the Lower Classes
     V.    Contact with the Upper Classes
    VI.    The School of the Cross
   VII.    First Love
  VIII.    The Spring Thaw
    IX.    With Strangers
     X.    Character and Destiny




AUGUST STRINDBERG AS NOVELIST


_From the Publication of "The Son of a Servant" to "The Inferno"_
(1886-1896)

A celebrated statesman is said to have described the biography of a
cardinal as being like the Judgment Day. In reading August Strindberg's
autobiographical writings, as, for example, his _Inferno_, and the book
for which this study is a preface, we must remember that he portrays
his own Judgment Day. And as his works have come but lately before the
great British public, it may be well to consider what attitude should
be adopted towards the amazing candour of his self-revelation. In most
provinces of life other than the comprehension of our fellows, the art
of understanding is making great progress. We comprehend new phenomena
without the old strain upon our capacity for readjusting our point of
view. But do we equally well understand our fellow-being whose way of
life is not ours? We are patient towards new phases of philosophy,
new discoveries in science, new sociological facts, observed in other
lands; but in considering an abnormal type of man or woman, hasty
judgment or a too contracted outlook is still liable to cloud the
judgment.

Now, it is obvious that if we would understand any worker who has
accomplished what his contemporaries could only attempt to do, we
must have a sufficiently wide knowledge of his work. Neither the
inconsequent gossip attaching to such a personality, nor the chance
perusal of a problem-play, affords an adequate basis for arriving at
a true estimate of the man. Few writers demand, to the same degree as
August Strindberg, those graces of judgment, patience, and reverence.
And for this reason first of all: most of us live sheltered lives. They
are few who stand in the heart of the storm made by Europe's progress.
Especially is this true in Southern Europe, where tradition holds its
secular sway, where such a moulding energy as constitutional practice
exerts its influence over social life, where the aims and ends of human
attainment are defined and sanctioned by a consciousness developing
with the advancement of civilisation. There is often engendered under
such conditions a nervous impatience towards those who, judged from
behind the sheltered walls of orthodoxy, are more or less exposed to
the criticism of their fellows. The fault lies in yielding to this
impatience. The proof that August Strindberg was of the few who must
stand in the open, and suffer the full force of all the winds that
blow, cannot now be attempted. Our sole aim must be to enable the
reader of _The Son of a Servant_ to take up a sympathetic standpoint.
This book forms _part_ of the autobiography of a most gifted man,
through whose life the fierce winds of Europe's opinions blew into
various expression.

The second reason for the exercise of impartiality, is that
Strindberg's recent death has led to the circulation through Europe of
certain phrases which are liable to displace the balance of judgment
in reviewing his life and work. There are passages in his writings,
and phases of his autobiography, that raise questions of Abnormal
Psychology. Hence pathological terms are used to represent the whole
man and his work. Again, from the jargon of a prevalent Nietzschianism
a doctrine at once like and unlike the teaching of that solitary
thinker descriptions of the Superman are borrowed, and with these
Strindberg is labelled. Or again, certain incidents in his domestic
affairs are seized upon to prove him a decadent libertine. The facts of
this book, _The Son of a Servant_,