Kristian Elster (born 1841)

Kristian Mandrup Elster ( born March 4, 1841 in Overhalla, † April 11, 1881 in Trondheim ) was a Norwegian writer and literary critic.

Life

Elster was the son of officials Christen Christensen Elster and the grandson of Christians Elster. He grew up in Overland Halla in Nord-Trøndelag in first. 1853 the family moved to Forde. From the age of fifteen Elster attended a school in Christiania. He should an officer's career track. His short-sightedness prevented however.

Instead, he focused on literature and wrote plays. In 1860 was one of his plays, Fra fjords, by Henrik Ibsen, the then director of the Kristiania Norske Theater, accepted. However, Elster himself was not satisfied with his piece and moved it back. Three years later, his piece Eystein Meyla came to the performance, but this proved unsuccessful.

His schoolwork neglected Elster and in particular the Latin class caused him great difficulty. Only in 1864 that he passed the Abitur. After that he worked as a journalist before he was trained from 1867 to 1868 in Giessen for foresters. After he had worked for several years in Christiania as a theater critic, among other things, for the newspaper Aftenbladet, he finally got a job as a forester in 1873 in Sør -Trøndelag. In addition to his work as a forester, he was still active as a literary critic, now for Trondheim newspapers like Dagsposten.

His own literary works were influenced by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. He was regarded as an important pioneer of realism in Norway. Towards the end of the 1870s found socialist and anarchist ideas under the influence of the labor movement a place in Elster's work.

Elster was married to Sanna Fasting since 1874. The marriage produced three sons were born. The youngest son was Kristian Elster the Younger, who later became a writer recognition. A few weeks after the birth of his third son Elster died of pneumonia.

His last novel, Farlige Folk, was published posthumously. He was also extremely popular in Scandinavia and has been, as well as some other works Elster, translated into German.

Works

Plays

• Fra fjords (1860 )
• Audun Hugleikson (1863 )
• Eystein Meyla (1863 )

Stories

• Trondals Squeegee (1869 )
• En korsgang (1871, dt A cloister, 1893)
• Solskyer (1877, dt Sonnenwoklen, 1886)

Novels

• Torah Trondal (1879 )
• Farlige Folk (1881, German Hazardous people, 1882)