To have
polished this tongue and sharpened its capacity for refined and incisive
utterance, is one--and not the least--of his merits.
Though he has by nature no more sympathy with the pietistic movement
than Daudet, Kielland yet manages to get psychologically closer to his
problem. His pietists are more humanly interesting than those of Daudet,
and the little drama which they set in motion is more genuinely
pathetic. Two superb figures--the lay preacher Hans Nilsen and Skipper
Worse--surpass all that the author had hitherto produced in depth of
conception and brilliancy of execution. The marriage of that delightful,
profane old sea-dog Jacob Worse with the pious Sara Torvestad, and the
attempts of his mother-in-law to convert him, are described not with the
merely superficial drollery to which the subject invites, but with a
sweet and delicate humor which trembles on the verge of pathos. In the
Christmas tale, "Elsie," Kielland has produced a little classic of
almost flawless perfection. With what exquisite art he paints the life
of a small Norwegian coast-town in all its vivid details! While
Bjoernson, in "The Heritage of the Kurts," primarily emphasizes the
responsibility of the individual to society, Kielland chooses to
emphasize the responsibility of society to the individual.
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