A King's Son's Fate: Sketches from the Life of Erik XIV's Son

Åberg, J. O. (Johan Olof), 1843-1898Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.1
Word count
57K words
Chapters
6

Tags

Foreign Language Books Historical Fiction Historical ReappraisalPortrait GalleryLegendary LivesRise and FallFate and FortunePower GameComplex HumanityMoral DilemmaExotic CultureSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.En konungasons öde: Skildringar från Erik XIV:s sons lif by J. O. ÅbergAuthor: Åberg, J. O. (Johan Olof), 1843-1898,Language: Swedish, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Aug 8, 2016

Editor's review

This is a historical narrative by the Swedish author Johan Olof Åberg (1843–1898) about the son of King Erik XIV of Sweden, belonging to a branch of the Nordic historical novel tradition. Writing in the nineteenth century, the author employs the scene-based style popular at the time, interweaving court life and personal fate; readers can see later generations' literary imagination of the Erik XIV era and the fortunes of his descendants. As a public-domain eBook in the Project Gutenberg collection, its main value lies at the documentary and corpus level: on the one hand it can serve readers studying Nordic historical fiction and the reception history of Swedish literature, and on the other it is long-form reading material for learners of Swedish. Note that the book presents literary narrative rather than historical verification and should not be taken as a basis for historical fact. It is suitable as a sample for understanding the appearance of nineteenth-century Swedish popular historical writing, or for reading alongside historical sources on Erik XIV.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. First learn the basic historical facts about Erik XIV and his descendants, then read the main text to distinguish literary imagination from historical fact.
  2. Swedish learners can read a short section each day, note vocabulary for characters and court scenes, and build up historical register.
  3. Read alongside historical works on the same subject, noting where the author adds or omits, as material for textual analysis.
  4. Treat the book as a sample of nineteenth-century Swedish popular historical writing and pay attention to its narrative perspective and moral judgments.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6

FAQ

Is this book a work of historical research? No. It is a literary narrative by the nineteenth-century author Åberg on the life of Erik XIV's son, with a clear period style and imaginative elements. It is suitable as a literary text; for historical facts, consult historical works instead.
Can I read this book without knowing Swedish? The original is in Swedish with no Chinese parallel text. Readers with no Swedish at all will find it very difficult; it is advisable to have basic grammar and vocabulary first, or to read with the aid of dictionaries and translation tools, otherwise the content will be hard to appreciate.
Why is this book published by Project Gutenberg? Project Gutenberg is dedicated to compiling and providing public-domain eBooks. Åberg died in 1898, so his works have entered the public domain and are included as free electronic texts; this book is one of the project's Swedish public-domain resources.
What should I pay attention to while reading? Be careful to distinguish literary narrative from historical fact; the character portrayal and plot arrangement reflect the ideas of the author's time. Also note nineteenth-century Swedish usage; for unfamiliar words, use context and a dictionary.

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About the author

Åberg, J. O. (Johan Olof), 1843-1898 Author

Johan Olof Åberg (Åberg, J. O., 1843–1898) was a Swedish-language author of historical novels and wartime stories, usually catalogued under the full Swedish form of his name. Public information about his life, nationality and career is limited; what is known comes mainly from the twelve works held in the collection. These are mostly set against the Finnish wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Swedish-Russian War of 1808–1809, and the Thirty Years' War, and their titles refer to historical figures such as Charles XII, Sandels and Adlercreutz, as in Karl XII i klämman, Sandelsin urhea joukko and Räfskinnet. His writing thus tends to interweave real campaigns with fictional narrative, and his works circulated in both Swedish and Finnish versions. He was skilled at recreating historical scenes through suspenseful plots and accessible prose, earning him a place among Swedish-language popular historical reading.