"
Likewise former critics have questioned whether the stars gain in the
least in vividness by being compared to the priests of Egypt,[31] who
were certainly far less familiar to the reader's vision.
[31] L. Dietrichson: Indledning i Studiet af Sveriges Litteratur.
Kjoebenhavn, 1862. See also Svensk Litteratur-Tidning as quoted in B.
E. Malmstroem: Grunddragen af Svenska Vitterhetens Historia, vol. v.,
p. 423. Oerebro.
The story of the Swedish officer Axel and his beloved, the Cossack
Amazon, Maria, has from beginning to end a flavor of Byron, and recalls
alternately "the Corsair" and "Lara." The extravagant sentimentality of
the tale appealed, however, powerfully to the contemporary taste, and
the dissenting voice of criticism was drowned like the shrill note of a
single fife in the noisy orchestra of praise. The Swedish matrons and
maidens wept over Axel's and Maria's heroic, but tragic love, as those
of England, nay, of all Europe, wept over that of Conrad and Medora.
Maria, when she hears that Axel has a betrothed at home, enlists as a
man in the Russian army (a very odd proceeding by the way, and scarcely
conducive to her purpose) and resolves to kill her rival.
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