A. H. Tammsaare
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A. H. Tammsaare | |
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Born | Anton Hansen 30 January 1878 |
Died | 1 March 1940 | (aged 62)
Other names | A. H. Tammsaare |
Alma mater | University of Tartu |
Occupation | Novelist |
Years active | 1900–1940 |
Spouse |
Käthe-Amalie Veltman
(m. 1920) |
Children |
|
Anton Hansen (18
Biography
Tammsaare was born in
In 1918, when Estonia became independent, Tammsaare moved to Tallinn. It was here that Tammsaare wrote prose works based on the history and lives of the Estonian people that gained him a prominent place in Estonian literature.
Tammsaare was interested in
Bibliography
Tammsaare's early works are characterized by rural "poetic" realism. Some of his stories also reflect the atmosphere of the revolutionary year of 1905. During what is sometimes classified as his second period, from 1908 to 1919, he wrote several short urban novels and collections of miniatures. In "Poiss ja liblikas" (1915, The Boy and the Butterfly), Tammsaare shows the influence of Oscar Wilde. Internationally best known is his last novel, Devil with a False Passport ("Põrgupõhja uus Vanapagan").
Truth and Justice comprises five volumes, which have no individual titles (some were added in translation). Since vol. 3 contains a description about the
Even today, the third volume is sometimes called "artistically inferior", although the description of the revolution is on par with similar scenes in Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. In Estonia, the second volume, with its Tartu educational scenes, is today probably the most enjoyed. International critics would probably opt for vol. 1 as the strongest overall; it is a classical peasant novel reminiscent of Hamsun which is also generally held to be the most telling one about "the Estonian character", embodied especially in two antagonistic farmer figures Andres and Pearu. Tammsaare himself said later that the different volumes deal with the relation of Man (i.e., the human person) to (1) the land, (2) God, (3) State and society, (4) him- or herself and (5) resignation.
Truth and Justice was not translated into English until 2014, when Haute Culture Books published the first volume of the saga under the name "Andres and Pearu". There are two complete translations into German and one each into French, Latvian, and Czech. Volume 1 has also been translated into Finnish, Polish, and Hungarian (with the title, Orcád verítékével).
Selected works
- 1902: Kaks paari ja üksainus (Two Pairs and the One)
- 1903: Vanad ja noored (Old Ones and Young Ones)
- 1907: Raha-auk (The Money-Hole)
- 1907: Uurimisel (Be in Prospect)
- 1908: Pikad sammud (Long Steps)
- 1909: Noored hinged (Young Spirits)
- 1910: Üle piiri (Over the Border)
- 1915: Kärbes (The Fly)
- 1915: Keelest ja luulest (About Language and Poetry)
- 1915: Poiss ja liblikas (The Boy and the Butterfly)
- 1917: Varjundid (The Shapes of the Shadows)
- 1919: Sõjamõtted (Thoughts of War)
- 1921: Juudit (Judith)
- 1922: Kõrboja peremees (The Master of Kõrboja)
- 1923: Pöialpoiss (The Midget)
- 1924: Sic Transit
- 1926–1933: Tõde ja õigusI–V (Truth and Justice, vols. 1–5)
- 1932: Meie rebane (Our Fox)
- 1934: Elu ja armastus (The Life and the Love)
- 1935: Ma armastasin sakslast (I Loved a German)
- 1936: Kuningal on külm (The King Is Cold)
- 1938: Hiina ja hiinlane (China and a Chinese)
- 1939: Põrgupõhja uus Vanapagan (The Misadventures of the New Satan / Devil with a False Passport; literally, The New Devil of Hellsbottom)
- 1977: Miniatures
- 1977–1993: Kogutud teosed, 18 vols. (Collected Works)
See also
References
External links
- Who is A.H.Tammsaare?
- Tammsaare Museum in Kadriorg
- Central bank website - shows the 25-Kroon banknote, with its depiction of Tammsaare and his farm