Short Stories

Hjalmar Soderberg (1869-1941) established himself at the fin-de-siecle as a writer of challenging ideas and controlled elegance of style. Although best known in the English-speaking world for his provocative novel Doctor Glas, it is his short stories that are the main reason for his high standing in his native Sweden. The twenty-six stories included in this volume are taut, economical in structure, precisely observed and laced with irony. They include some of his most popular and well known stories: A Dog without a Master, a meditation upon a godless existence, The Fur Coat, in which a borrowed garment reveals an adulterous secret, and The Chinese, with its delicate depiction of loneliness and isolation. Shining through all the stories is Soderberg's clear-sighted affection for Stockholm, in all its moods - it is only too easy to see why Soderberg is regarded as one of the foremost chroniclers of the city.