Out of Inferno

In 1897 August Strindberg, almost fifty years old, embarked on one of the great comebacks in the history of literature. For six years he had lived as an exile in Germany, Austria, and France. Though more than twenty years earlier he had earned a place in Scandinavian literature, the general view in Sweden was that he was finished, his career over. Then, with the publication of Inferno, the novel that described some of the most harrowing experiences of his exile years, he returned swiftly to the center of Swedish literary life. In Out of Inferno Harry G. Carlson analyzes the reasons for Strindberg's collapse and subsequent reemergence as an influential modern writer.

Harry G. Carlson is professor of theatre, Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.