Amalie Skram (1846–1905)
Author of Constance Ring
About the Author
Amalie Skram was a scandalous figure at the time of the Modern Breakthrough: not only a divorced woman, but a writer on topics not deemed suitable for a lady. Her hard-hitting naturalism and exposes of social injustice and sexist sexual mores shocked many people. In Constance Ring (1885), for show more example, Skram explores the trauma caused by the societal expectation that women, raised in ignorance and married to men they do not love, should nevertheless become warm sexual partners. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(nor) Giftet seg for 2. gang med Skram og bosatte seg i Danmark, fikk 1 datter. Hun hadde 3 sønner fra 1. ekteskap med Kaptein Muller. Død ved egen hånd.
Series
Works by Amalie Skram
Lucie, Agnete 4 copies
På St. Jørgen ; Sommer ; Julehelg 3 copies
"Og nu vil jeg tale ut"; "Men nu vil jeg ogsa tale ud" (Brevvekslingen Mellom; --Norvege--) (1982) 3 copies
Udvalgte Fortællinger 2 copies
Samlede Værker Del 1-9 2 copies
Samlede verker b.2 1 copy
Zwei Freunde 1 copy
Samlede verker B 5 : Forrådt 1 copy
Samlede verker 1-6 1 copy
Samlede verker b.3 1 copy
Associated Works
Caught in the Enchanter's Net: Amalie and Erik Skram's Letters (Series A: Scandinavian Literary History and… (2004) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Skram, Amalie
- Legal name
- Skram, Amalie
- Other names
- Alver, Amalie
- Birthdate
- 1846-08-22
- Date of death
- 1905-03-15
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- Norway
- Birthplace
- Bergen, Norway
- Place of death
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Places of residence
- Bergen, Norway
Copenhagen, Denmark
Oslo, Norway - Occupations
- novelist
feminist - Relationships
- Skram, Erik (husband)
- Short biography
- Amalie Skram was born Berthe Amalie Alver in Bergen, Norway. She had a difficult childhood, and her parents' small business went bankrupt when she was 16. Her father then left Norway for the USA to avoid imprisonment, leaving her mother with five children to support. Amalie was pressured into a marriage with Bernt Ulrik August Müller, a ship's captain about 10 years older. The union produced two sons but was unhappy; after a brief hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, Amalie separated from her husband and then divorced. She moved with her children to the capital of Kristiania (now Oslo), where she began her writing career. She made her literary debut with the short story "Madam Høiers leiefolk" (Madam Høier's Lodgers) published in a magazine in 1882. In 1884, she remarried to Danish writer Erik Skram, and moved to Copenhagen. She had a daughter from this marriage. Her first novel, Constance Ring, appeared in 1885. She suffered another mental breakdown in 1894, and spent years living in a psychiatric hospital near Roskilde. Her second married ended in 1900, and she died five years later. Her novels were considered radical and provocative for their explorations of unhappy marriages, female sexuality, and the second-class status of women, and were received with some open hostility that may have contributed to her mental breakdown. She described her struggles as a wife, mother, and artist in her two autobiographical novels, Professor Hieronimus (1895) and På St. Jørgen (At St. Jorgen’s, also 1895), giving a thinly-veiled description of her own psychiatric treatment. The two books were adapted for Danish television in 1987. Her works, which had fallen into obscurity with her death, were rediscovered and received critical recognition in the 1960s. Today she's recognized as pioneering feminist author and one of the foremost Naturalist writers of her time. The Skram-prisen or Amalie Skram Prize, named in her honor in 1994, is awarded annually to Norwegian authors who show exceptional skill in addressing women's issues.
- Disambiguation notice
- Giftet seg for 2. gang med Skram og bosatte seg i Danmark, fikk 1 datter. Hun hadde 3 sønner fra 1. ekteskap med Kaptein Muller. Død ved egen hånd.
Members
Reviews
Written in 1885 Norway by early feminist Amalie Skram, this is a manifesto of sorts, criticizing the patriarchy, the double standard of sexuality, and the institutions of marriage and religion. The main character, a young woman named Constance Ring, is in a man’s world and resents women’s subservient role in it. She’s also in a religious world, and resents how it makes divorce even in the case of unhappiness or adultery very hard to obtain. She openly questions whether God exists, and points out how often society men have mistresses, often with lower-class women, and just write it off as meaningless physical pleasure. Everyone in society then looks the other way, so much so that Constance exclaims “if this is true and everybody accepts it, why don’t we get rid of this hypocritical institution? Why in the world don’t we practice polygamy openly?”
There are also some political bits here, as the characters span the spectrum from deeply conservative to wildly radical, and I thought it was interesting that the polarization led to the same kind of rhetoric and demonization that we see in today’s America (“Everything the Left wants is fundamentally destructive to society. My God – if they get power…” … my God, didn’t Lindsey Graham just say that?). Skram also touches on the plight of the poor, and through Constance makes it clear that she doesn’t “believe all that rubbish about anyone being able to find work who wants it – not enough to live on, at least.”
I sympathize for Constance, and there is great power when she is repulsed by her husband, an older, boorish man, and when “she didn’t feel, would never feel, it was her duty and her calling to make this fat, self-satisfied man happy, a man who never asked about her feelings, who treated her as if she didn’t have a soul in her body…” On the other hand, she’s so ice cold emotionally, and the combination of being bored with life and disgusted with people all makes for a pretty unlikeable character as the book goes on in its second half, which is also a little melodramatic. At one point she reaches a decision point and can go off and get a job, but decides to marry instead. She soon finds herself unhappy again, and seems caught between hating the conventional order of things and not wanting to embrace free love, or maybe between detesting the hypocrisy of pervasive adultery, and not wanting to admit many men have sexual needs. Even in her reaction to an episode to visiting a slum and helping the poor, when she sees how broken things are and the hypocrisy in others who are helping, she simply withdraws in negativity.
Still, all in all, this is a remarkable work, and Skram deserves credit for how clearly and honestly she puts forth her views, which were incendiary at the time. It’s also a good book to read while touring Norway, and to hear a feminine voice amidst her contemporaries, Ibsen and Bjørnson, who we hear so much more about.
Just one more quote, on adultery:
“The horror of being an unfaithful wife was so ingrained in her. Adulteress – whore. Oh, those words were unspeakable! There were better ways to describe this. ‘A woman only belongs to the man she loves,’ Mrs. Gyllembourg had written. And even if…Suppose Lorck were in love with a woman who wanted him as well. Would he think twice about it? Not for a minute. Not him, nor any of the other married men she knew. Why should women have all these scruples? Measure for measure – that was life’s only valid principle.”… (more)
There are also some political bits here, as the characters span the spectrum from deeply conservative to wildly radical, and I thought it was interesting that the polarization led to the same kind of rhetoric and demonization that we see in today’s America (“Everything the Left wants is fundamentally destructive to society. My God – if they get power…” … my God, didn’t Lindsey Graham just say that?). Skram also touches on the plight of the poor, and through Constance makes it clear that she doesn’t “believe all that rubbish about anyone being able to find work who wants it – not enough to live on, at least.”
I sympathize for Constance, and there is great power when she is repulsed by her husband, an older, boorish man, and when “she didn’t feel, would never feel, it was her duty and her calling to make this fat, self-satisfied man happy, a man who never asked about her feelings, who treated her as if she didn’t have a soul in her body…” On the other hand, she’s so ice cold emotionally, and the combination of being bored with life and disgusted with people all makes for a pretty unlikeable character as the book goes on in its second half, which is also a little melodramatic. At one point she reaches a decision point and can go off and get a job, but decides to marry instead. She soon finds herself unhappy again, and seems caught between hating the conventional order of things and not wanting to embrace free love, or maybe between detesting the hypocrisy of pervasive adultery, and not wanting to admit many men have sexual needs. Even in her reaction to an episode to visiting a slum and helping the poor, when she sees how broken things are and the hypocrisy in others who are helping, she simply withdraws in negativity.
Still, all in all, this is a remarkable work, and Skram deserves credit for how clearly and honestly she puts forth her views, which were incendiary at the time. It’s also a good book to read while touring Norway, and to hear a feminine voice amidst her contemporaries, Ibsen and Bjørnson, who we hear so much more about.
Just one more quote, on adultery:
“The horror of being an unfaithful wife was so ingrained in her. Adulteress – whore. Oh, those words were unspeakable! There were better ways to describe this. ‘A woman only belongs to the man she loves,’ Mrs. Gyllembourg had written. And even if…Suppose Lorck were in love with a woman who wanted him as well. Would he think twice about it? Not for a minute. Not him, nor any of the other married men she knew. Why should women have all these scruples? Measure for measure – that was life’s only valid principle.”… (more)
2 
gbill | 1 other review | Jul 27, 2019 |
gbill | 1 other review | Jul 27, 2019 | 
Amalie Skram was a Norwegian writer working in the late 1800's, early 1900's. This book, which combines two of her novels into one volume, relates the story of an artist who, suffering from artist's block and inability to sleep, voluntarily agrees to a short stay in a sanatorium for a rest. Once she is there, however, the doctor and the institution deem her insane, and refuse to authorize her release. Her husband goes along with what the doctor says.
These novels are based on Skram's real life experience. When Skram finally obtained her real life release, she wrote the novels to expose the doctors who wrongfully detained her and many other helpless women she met in the mental institution while she was there, and whose stories she also tells. Recommended.
3 1/2 stars… (more)
These novels are based on Skram's real life experience. When Skram finally obtained her real life release, she wrote the novels to expose the doctors who wrongfully detained her and many other helpless women she met in the mental institution while she was there, and whose stories she also tells. Recommended.
3 1/2 stars… (more)
Les anmeldelser:
Bind I - http://no.librarything.com/work/details/40330279
BInd II: http://no.librarything.com/work/details/40331034
Bind III: http://no.librarything.com/work/7496187/details/40331219
Bind IV: http://no.librarything.com/work/details/41651348… (more)
Bind I - http://no.librarything.com/work/details/40330279
BInd II: http://no.librarything.com/work/details/40331034
Bind III: http://no.librarything.com/work/7496187/details/40331219
Bind IV: http://no.librarything.com/work/details/41651348… (more)
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- Works
- 55
- Also by
- 7
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- Rating
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- Reviews
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[Constance Ring] is a 1885 Norwegian novel that explores the limited, powerless life of a young married woman. Constance's first marriage happens when she is still a very young woman to a husband 20 years older than her. At first things are ok, but she is increasingly disgusted by him and refuses any intimacy with him. She is young and beautiful and her husband tries everything to make her open to him, but in the end he turns to their also young and beautiful maid. When Constance finds out she considers divorce, to the horror of her family. They understand her situation and expect her to accept it.
Constance's second marriage starts slow, but she grows to love her husband. Discovering his past lovers, though, ruins her trust and love. Her last lover also betrays her, which is the final betrayal she can handle.
I thought this was a really good novel that explores the double standard imposed on women. Constance simply can't accept that men are allowed to indulge their sexual desires with any woman at any time and people simply accept it or pretend not to see it. She feels badly for the women of a lower social stratus who are even more powerless than she is. She feels betrayed that men she is married to and/or loves would indulge in these sexual relationships without love, whether it occurs before her relationship with them or during. And she seems to only partially ever awaken to the joy of physical intimacy with any of her lovers because of these thoughts and feelings.
I found this book in the [500 Great Books by Women] that I've been exploring this year. I've read a bit of Norwegian literature (well, of what is available in English translation) and I hadn't heard of this author. I'm glad I read it and recommend it to readers who enjoy this era and topic.
Original publication date: 1885
Author’s nationality: Norwegian
Original language: Norwegian translated to English by Judith Messick
Length: 289 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: purchased used copy
Why I read this: 500 great books by women… (more)