Fredrika Bremer
Swedish Novelist of Home Life
1801 – 1865 A.D.

Fredrika was born in Finland, but when that country was annexed to Russia, her father, a wealthy merchant, removed to Sweden with his family. The daughter’s education received careful attention. After enjoying the best advantages Sweden could afford she was sent to Paris and on her return became a teacher in an academy for girls in Stockholm. She was a person of great mental vigor and her intense nature began to express itself in writing – merely as an outlet for her pent-up feelings – before she entered her teens.

Her first novel, The Neighbors, was translated into German, French, Dutch, Russian, and English. This gives us an idea of the popularity of the work. Some of her other books are, The Home, Life in Delacarlia, The Midnight Sun, The Homes of the New World (an account of her observations in America), England in 1851 (giving views of the country and people as she saw the during a residence there). Most of her novels present pictures of home life in her own Scandinavia.

As a woman and a writer she was greatly loved in many lands.

“She has brought the dim old Scandinavian world, that seemed completely hidden by the cloud of fable an curtain time from the western hemisphere, before us, with an enchanter’s wand. Her little white hand has greatly led us up among primeval mountains covered with eternal forests of pine, and along the banks of deep lakes, where the blue waters have slept since the creation. She has done more, she has led us ‘over the threshold of the Swede,’ introduced us into the sanctuary of their cheerful homes and made us friends with her friends.”

After the death of her father, in 1830, she lived for some years in Norway with a friend, after whose death she resolved to gratify along-repressed desire to travel. In autumn of 1849 she set out for America, and after spending nearly two years here returned to England. The admirable translations of her works by Mary Howitt secured her for a warm and kindly reception in both America and England.

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Reference: Woman: Her Position, Influence, and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World published by the King-Richardson Co. in 1903.