Agnes von Krusenstjerna

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Agnes von Krusenstjerna
Agnes von Krusenstjerna
Agnes von Krusenstjerna
Born October 9, 1894
Växjö, Sweden
Died March 10, 1940
Stockholm, Sweden
Notable works Tony series
Agnes von Krusenstjerna (October 9, 1894 – March 10, 1940) was a Swedish writer and
noble. She was a controversial writer whose books challenged the moral standards of
the day and was the center of a great literary controversy of the freedom of
speech.

Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Works
2 Works
3 Fiction
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Biography
Krusenstjerna was born in Växjö and brought up in Gävle. Niece of Edvard von
Krusenstjerna, she was born in to the nobility. She was educated at the teacher's
academy of Anna Sandström in Stockholm. She married David Sprengel in 1921.

Agnes von Krusenstjerna was on several occasions admitted to mental hospitals. In

1940, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour; she died on the operating table in
March 1940. Krusenstjerna died in Stockholm.

Works

Agnes von Krusenstjerna

She debuted as a writer with the girls' novel Ninas dagbok (1917) and made her
breakthrough with the Tony novel series (1922–26) about a girl's development in a
noble environment.

The Tony series was greatly controversial, as it depicted sexual themes as well as
mental disorders, which made Krusenstjerna controversial. Sexuality was, before the
1920s, not mentioned in novels, and her books depicted sex and intercourse. The
novel series Fröknarna von Pahlen created one of the greatest debates and
controversies of its time in Sweden, known as Krusenstjernafejden (The
Krusenstjerna feud): the series described sexual intercourse, which caused an
enormous amount of attention and led to a two-year-long (1933–35) debate about the
freedom of speech, the relation of literature toward the moral standards, the right
of female expression and the right to sexual freedom, which ended with the writers'
conference of Sigtuna 1935. She was supported by Eyvind Johnson, Johannes Edfelt,
Elmer Diktonius and Karin Boye, who compared the affair to the censorship of Nazi
Germany.

Her writing was closely inspired to her own life and can be regarded as partially
autobiographical, especially her last, unfinished series, Fattigadel (Poor
Nobility) (1935–1938).
Works
Novels

Ninas dagbok (Nina's diary) 1917

Helenas första kärlek (The first love of Helena) 1918
Fru Esters pensionat (Mrs Ester's boarding house) 1927
Händelser på vägen (Events on the way) 1929
Series

The Tony series:

Tony växer upp (Tony's adolescence) 1922

Tonys läroår (Tony's years of learning) 1924
Tonys sista läroår (Tony's last years of learning) 1926
The Miss von Pahlen's series: Fröknarna von Pahlen:

Den blå rullgardinen (The blue curtain) 1930

Kvinnogatan (The Women's street) 1930
Höstens skuggor (The shadows of the autumn) 1931
Porten vid Johannes (The gate at Johannes) 1933
Älskande par (Loving couples) 1933
Bröllop på Ekered (Wedding at Ekered) 1935
Av samma blod (By the same blood) 1935
Fattigadel (Poor nobility) (original title: Viveca von Lagercronas historia (The
story of Viveca von Lagercrona):

Fattigadel (Pauper nobility) 1935

Dunklet mellan träden (The shadow between the trees) 1936
Dessa lyckliga år (These happy years) 1937
I livets vår (In the spring of life) 1938
Poems

Nunnornas hus (The house of nuns) 1937

Short stories

En dagdriverskas anteckningar (The notes of an idle woman) (1923)

Delat rum på Kammakaregatan (A shared room at Kammakaregatan) (1933)
En ung dam far till Djurgårdsbrunn (A young lady visits Djurgårdsbrunn) (1933)
Vivi, flicka med melodi ( Vivi, a girl with a melody) (1936)
Stulet nyår (A stolen New Year's Eve)
Fiction
Her life was portrayed in Amorosa (1986 film).

See also
Alfhild Agrell
Frida Stéenhoff
References
Olof Lagercrantz: Agnes von Krusenstjerna, 1980 (delvis omarbetad från
originalutgåvan 1951)
Merete Mazzarella: Agnes von Krusenstjerna, 1992
Börje Teijler: Agnes von Krusenstjerna och David Sprengel, 1977
Anna Williams: Tillträde till den nya tiden: fem berättelser om när Sverige blev
modernt: Ivar Lo-Johansson, Agnes von Krusenstjerna, Vilhelm Moberg, Moa Martinson,
2002
Anders Öhman: Apologier: en linje i den svenska romanen från August Strindberg till
Agnes von Krusenstjerna, 2001
Lagercrantz 1951, Agnes von Krusenstjerna; Johannes Edfelts efterord till I livets
vår i Krusenstjernas samlade skrifter
Further reading
Agnes von Krusenstjerna at Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon