This was written 19 Mar 2008. I read the book in Finnish. I do not know if it is translated into English.

Agnes by Minna Canth

Today is Minna Canth’s Day, The Day of Equality in Finland. It is a new official Finnish flag-raising day, only became so last year. I only found out yesterday looking at my Finnish calendar.

Minna Canth was a Finnish playwright. Per was born on the 19th of March 1844 and died on the 12th of May 1897. An introduction to per in the only book I have by per says that Minna Canth is the second most important Finnish playwright. The book I have is a novella Agnes. It is the only thing I have read by Minna Canth. I read it some time ago and was really impressed by it and its treatment of its subject matter. Yesterday I decided to read it again to refresh my memory so that I can write something about it.

Agnes was originally a part of a collection of novellas published in 1892. The introduction to my copy, which was printed in 1911 as a part of a series Otava’s 50 pennies libarary (Otavan 50 pennin Kirjasto), says that the strangest of the novellas is Agnes, in which a haughty beauty, who is totally broken away from the moral precepts of the nation, is set opposite naive Finnish home-bodies.

The novella is a first person account of a few days in the life of Liisi, the narrator, when an old school mate Agnes comes back to visit the small town where Liisi still lives with pers husband, three small children and a servant. Liisi and Agnes meet by chance and these few days with Agnes in their lives cause huge emotional and moral turmoil for Liisi. Agnes brings new ideas, new beliefs and without being passionate about anything arouses passion in others. Liisi is forced to learn something about perself and about pers husband and their realationship. And Agnes makes some really interesting comparisons between their two different ways of living their lives as women, and also as human beings. This novella is well worth reading and has something to offer us even today more than hundred years after its publication.