Thus, when, after an absence of six years,
he calls upon his brother-in-law, the pastor, he proceeds to turn
handsprings about the latter's study. When, after his marriage, his
sister meets him in the street for the purpose of informing him of the
scandalous rumors concerning his wife, he gives her a box on the ear.
In Bjoernson's last book, "New Tales" (_Nye Fortaellinger_) (1894), this
tendency to vehemence is even more marked. In the masterly story,
"Absalom's Hair" (than which the author has never written anything more
boldly original) old Harold Kaas literally spanks his young wife in the
presence of his servants. And the matter is in nowise minced, but
described with an unblushing zest which makes the impression of
_naivete_. It is obvious that in his delight in the exhibition of a
healthy, primitive wrath, Bjoernson half forgets how such barbarism must
affect his readers. We hear, to be sure, that the servants were filled
with indignation and horror, and that Harold Kaas, having expected
laughter and applause, "went away a defeated and irremediably crushed
man.
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