As regards the themes of these "Novelettes," it was remarked at the time
of their first appearance that they hinted at a more serious purpose
than their style seemed to imply. Who can read, for instance, "Pharaoh"
(which in the original is entitled "A Ball Mood") without detecting the
revolutionary note that trembles quite audibly through the calm and
unimpassioned language? There is, by the way, a little touch of
melodrama in this tale which is very unusual with Kielland. "Romance and
Reality," too, is glaringly at variance with conventional romanticism in
its satirical contrasting of the prematrimonial and the postmatrimonial
view of love and marriage. The same persistent tendency to present the
wrong side as well as the right side--and not, as literary good manners
are supposed to prescribe, ignore the former--is obvious in the charming
tale, "At the Fair," where a little spice of wholesome truth spoils the
thoughtlessly festive mood; and the squalor, the want, the envy, hate,
and greed which prudence and a regard for business compel the performers
to disguise to the public, become the more cruelly visible to the
visitors of the little alley-way at the rear of the tents.
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