The Northern Utopia.
British Perceptions of Norway in the Nineteenth Century.
FJÅGESUND, Peter and SYMES, Ruth A.
Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2003, 415 pp.
In
the nineteenth century, the ancient ‘filial tie’ between Britain and Norway was
rediscovered by a booming tourist industry which took thousands across the
North Sea to see the wonders of the fjords, the fjelds, and the beauties of the
North Cape. This illustrated volume, for the first time, collects together
vivid – and predominantly first-hand – impressions of the country recorded by
nearly two hundred British travellers and other commentators, including Thomas
Malthus, Charlotte Brontë, Lord Tennyson, and William Gladstone. In a rich
selection of travel writing, fiction, poetry, journalism, political speeches,
and art, Norway emerges as a refreshingly natural utopia, happily free from her
imperial neighbour’s increasing problems with the side-effects of
industrialisation.
This is a fascinating examination of the people, institutions, customs,
language and environment of Norway seen through the eyes of the British. Using
the tools of literary and historical scholarship, Fjågesund and Symes set these
perceptions in their nineteenth-century context, throwing light on such issues
as progress, art and aesthetics, democracy, religion, nationhood, race, class,
and gender, all of which occupied Europe at the time. The Northern Utopia
will be of particular interest to students of British and Scandinavian cultural
history, literature and travel writing. It will also enthral all those who love
Norway.