The Collector Journal for Swedish Literature Science Research

The article presents a hitherto unpublished prose fragment by Swedish author Viktor Rydberg (1828–1895). The fragment, in accordance with Rydberg’s notes entitled “En besynnerlig bibliotekarie” (“A Peculiar Librarian”), is here published for the first time, together with a list of variants in the original manuscript, which itself is preserved in the collections of the Royal Library in Stockholm. Following upon an initial overview of the the fragment’s place in Rydberg’s production, the setting and theme of the fragment are compared to a contemporary and more famous work by the same writer, the romantic novella Singoalla. Romantisk Sagodigt, first published in 1857. Similarities between the two texts are presented in order to cast further light upon the imaginary world of Rydberg during one of his most productive periods as an author. In a concluding discussion, the citings of literary works in the fragment are taken into consideration. The mentioning of the popular German author August Lafontaine’s adventure novels is, among other things, used to interpret the fragment’s title figure as obsolete and foolish. This is, in fact, his “peculiarity”, and the fragment can accordingly be read as a satire.