![]() ![]() At one point, Arvid (the student) muses on how he always saw himself as an upstanding, moral person, but now his life is full of lies and hypocrisy. It wasn't clear to me, though, how this theme fitted with the main story. And the story itself is seems to me to be deliberately 'immoral' - characters have adulterous affairs, illegitimate children, divorces, and this is all presented as absolutely normal, which I am sure was scandalous at the time the book was written. There are many references to famous lies, frauds and scandals of the period, from La Grande Therese to the Dreyfus affair. The student grows up to be a journalist, and with his friends and colleagues they talk about theories of morality and truth. There's clearly a theme of morality running through the book. And so this time around, it's much more dark and bitter. But of course, if she were still so innocent, they would not be able to embark on a love affair. But have they changed too much to rekindle their early romance? Well, actually, he hasn't changed all that much - he still dislikes the idea of promising himself to anybody, and he still needs her to be the innocent thing of his youthful dreams. Many years later, when both are in loveless marriages, they meet again by chance. However, he is unable to commit himself to her, and they lose contact. ![]() It's summer in the Swedish archipelago at the very end of the nineteenth century, and a student and a young girl are in love. ![]()
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