LIE

lie, jonas lauritz edemil (1833-1908), norwegian novelist, was born on the 6th of november 1833 close to hougsund (eker), near drammen. in 1838, his father being appointed sheriff of tromso, the family removed to that arctic town. here the future novelist enjoyed an untrammelled childhood among the shipping of the little nordland capital, and gained acquaintance with the wild seafaring life which he was afterwards to describe. in 1846 he was sent to the naval school at frederiksvaern, but his extreme near-sight unfitted him for the service, and he was transferred to the latin school at bergen. in 1851 he went to the university of christiania, where ibsen and bjornson were among his fellow-students. jonas lie, however, showed at this time no inclination to literature. he pursued his studies as a lawyer, took his degrees in law in 1858, and settled down to practice as a solicitor in the little town of kongsvinger. in 1860 he married his cousin, thomasine lie, whose collaboration in his work he acknowledged in 1893 in a graceful article in the _samtiden_ entitled "min hustru." in 1866 he published his first book, a volume of poems. he made unlucky speculations in wood, and the consequent financial embarrassment induced him to return to christiania to try his luck as a man of letters. as a journalist he had no success, but in 1870 he published a melancholy little romance, _den fremsynte_ (eng. trans., _the visionary_, 1894), which made him famous. lie proceeded to rome, and published tales in 1871 and _tremasteren "fremtiden"_ (eng. trans., _the barque "future,"_ chicago, 1879), a novel, in 1872. his first great book, however, was _lodsen og hans hustru_ (_the pilot and his wife_, 1874), which placed him at the head of norwegian novelists; it was written in the little town of rocca di papa in the albano mountains. from that time lie enjoyed, with bjornson and ibsen, a stipend as poet from the norwegian government. lie spent the next few years partly in dresden, partly in stuttgart, with frequent summer excursions to berchtesgaden in the bavarian highlands. during his exile he produced the drama in verse called _faustina strozzi_ (1876). returning to norway, lie began a series of romances of modern life in christiania, of which _thomas ross_ (1878) and _adam schrader_ (1879) were the earliest. he returned to germany, and settled first in dresden again, then in hamburg, until 1882, when he took up his abode in paris, where he lived in close retirement in the society of scandinavian friends. his summers were spent at berchtesgaden in tirol. the novels of his german period are _rutland_ (1881) and _gaa paa_ ("_go ahead!_" 1882), tales of life in the norwegian merchant navy. his subsequent works, produced with great regularity, enjoyed an immense reputation in norway. among the best of them are: _livsslaven_ (1883, eng. trans., "_one of life's slaves_," 1895); _familjen paa gilje_ ("_the family of gilje_," 1883); _malstroem_ (1885), describing the gradual ruin of a norwegian family; _et samliv_ ("_life in common_," 1887), describing a marriage of convenience. two of the most successful of his novels were _the commodore's daughters_ (1886) and niobe (1894), both of which were presented to english readers in the international library, edited by mr gosse. in 1891-1892 he wrote, under the influence of the new romantic impulse, twenty-four folk-tales, printed in two volumes entitled _trold_. some of these were translated by r. n. bain in _weird tales_ (1893), illustrated by l. housman. among his later works were the romance _naar sol gaar ned_ ("_when the sun goes down_," 1895), the powerful novel of _dyre rein_ (1896), the fairy drama of _lindelin_ (1897), _faste forland_ (1899), a romance which contains much which is autobiographical, _when the iron curtain falls_ (1901), and _the consul_ (1904). _his samlede vaerker_ were published at copenhagen in 14 vols. (1902-1904). jonas lie left paris in 1891, and, after spending a year in rome, returned to norway, establishing himself at holskogen, near christiansand. he died at christiania on the 5th of july 1908. as a novelist he stands with those minute and unobtrusive painters of contemporary manners who defy arrangement in this or that school. he is with mrs gaskell or ferdinand fabre; he is not entirely without relation with that old-fashioned favourite of the public, fredrika bremer. his son, erik lie (b. 1868), published a successful volume of stories, _med blyanten_, in 1890; and is also the author of various works on literary history. an elder son, mons lie (b. 1864), studied the violin in paris, but turned to literature in 1894. among his works are the plays _tragedier om kjaerlighed_ (1897); _lombardo and agrippina_ (1898); _don juan_ (1900); and the novels, _sjofareren_ (1901); _adam ravn_ (1903) and _i. kvindensnet_ (1904). (e. g.)