Erkki Ollikainen

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

2.3

Word count: 194K words
Chapters: 20

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.Erkki Ollikainen by J. O. ÅbergAuthor: Åberg, J. O. (Johan Olof), 1843-1898,Language: Finnish, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Jul 6, 2010

Editor's review

This is a work by the Finnish author J. O. Åberg (1843–1898), prepared by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. Åberg was active in the late nineteenth century, an era of Finnish national awakening and the construction of a literary language; his work belongs to the early development of Finnish-language literature and has documentary value for understanding how written Finnish took shape. The book is classified under Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, is in Finnish, and is presented in the customary Project Gutenberg form as a public-domain electronic text. Its value for readers lies mainly in two things: first, as a sample of nineteenth-century Finnish narrative it allows observation of the language style and narrative manner of the time; second, as a public-domain digitization it gives researchers and language learners low-cost access to the original text. It suits readers who wish to encounter Finnish literary history in the original, for comparative literature, or for practice in reading Finnish; it is not suited to general leisure readers expecting the pace of a modern novel or a Chinese translation. Reading alongside background material on Finnish literary history is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of nineteenth-century Finnish and Nordic literary history
Advanced language learners of Finnish who wish to engage with public-domain texts in the original
Researchers of publishing culture interested in Project Gutenberg and public-domain digitization
Comparative literature readers interested in the language style of early written Finnish

Not a good fit for

Leisure readers who want only a Chinese translation and are uncomfortable reading in a foreign language
Readers expecting the tension and fast pace of a modern novel
Beginning literature enthusiasts who need detailed notes and an introduction

Reading tips

Look up Åberg's life and the background of nineteenth-century Finnish literature before starting the text, so as not to read it out of context.
Those with limited Finnish can use a dictionary or bilingual tools and proceed chapter by chapter rather than reading straight through.
It can serve as supplementary source material for a course in Finnish literary history, read in selections alongside textbook chapters.
Note language and narrative features while reading, to facilitate comparison with works by Nordic writers of the same period.

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.

FAQ

What language is this book written in, and is it hard to read?

The book is in the original Finnish and dates from the nineteenth century, so its style is distant from modern Finnish. It is difficult for those with no Finnish; intermediate or higher proficiency, or a dictionary and reference materials, is recommended.

Is this book suitable for learning about Finnish literary history?

It can serve as supplementary material. Åberg was a late nineteenth-century Finnish writer, and the book reflects the language and narrative conditions of Finnish literature at the time, but one book cannot give the whole picture; it is best used alongside general histories of Finnish literature.

Where does the electronic edition come from, and is it reliable?

The book is released by Project Gutenberg, which has offered free public-domain eBooks since 1971. The text is a digitized public-domain work suitable for reading and research, but it usually contains no modern scholarly notes or introduction.

What background knowledge is needed before reading?

It is advisable first to learn the basics of nineteenth-century Finnish national awakening and the development of Finnish literature, and to become familiar with the writers of Åberg's time. With this background, the text's language choices and narrative orientation are easier to understand.

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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.