One more attempt he was bound to make, even at the risk of another
failure. Accordingly in 1883 appeared "The Life Prisoner"
(_Livsslaven_), which deserved a better fate than befell it. The critics
found it depressing, compared it to Zola, and at the same time scolded
the author because he lacked indignation and neglected to denounce the
terrible conditions which he described. He replied to their arraignments
in an angry but very effective letter. But that did not save the book.
Truth to tell, "The Life Prisoner" is a dismal tale. It was, in fact,
the irruption of modern naturalism into Norwegian literature. It reminds
one in its tone more of Dostoyevski's "Crime and Punishment" than of
"L'Assommoir." For to my mind Dostoyevski is a greater exponent of
naturalism than Zola, whom Lemaitre not inaptly styles "an epic poet."
The pleasing and well-bred truths or lies, to the expounding of which
_belles lettres_ had hitherto been confined, were here discarded or
ignored. The author had taken a plunge into the great dumb deep of the
nethermost social strata, which he has explored with admirable
conscientiousness and artistic perception.
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