Svensk litteraturkanon

Recommended reading

A Swedish literary canon? Perhaps a start.

Many have written to Allmogens and asked what you should read to learn about Swedish history and culture from a popular, libertarian perspective, and what Swedish "classics" belong in every home library.

This list in no way purports to be a definitive Swedish literary canon. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But perhaps it is the end of the beginning.

Any true history must, by its human and vivid presentation, make us remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future. In the light of what men once were, we can see what we are and dimly discern what we ought to be.

- G. M. Trevelyan i Clio, 1955

Swedish history

Standard works

  • Sten Carlsson & Jerker Rosén: The Swedish History, parts 1-10 (1966-1968)
  • Carl Grimberg: The wonderful fates of the Swedish people, parts 1-11 (1913-1939)

Popular history

  1. Vilhelm Moberg: My Swedish History, parts 1-2 (1970-1971)
  2. August Strindberg: The Swedish People in Weekend and Sunrise, parts 1-2 (1881-1882)
  3. Alfred Kämpe: The struggle for freedom of the Swedish Ommogens (1918-1920)
  4. Fredrik & Henrik Lindström: The fall of Svitjod and the birth of Sweden (2006)
  5. Vilhelm Moberg: The Unknown Family (1950)

Other history works worth reading

  • Fabian Månsson: The History of Migration (1937)
  • Fabian Månsson: History of the Viking Age (1939)

Modern research

  • Karin Bojs and Peter Sjölund: The Swedes and their Fathers (2016)

History of mankind

Swedish culture

  • Collections of Nordic Culture, parts 1-30 (1931-1956)
  • Hilding Celander: Nordic Christmas (1928)
  • Albert Eskeröd: Parties of the Year (1953)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: The Peasant Year (1963)
  • Gösta Berg: Swedish Peasant Culture (1969)

The Nordic heritage

Novel collections

  • August Strindberg: Swedish Fates and Adventures (1882-91)
  • Ivar-Lo Johansson: Statarna (1936-1937)

Novelists

  • Carl Jonas Love Almqvist: It is possible (1839)
  • Viktor Rydberg: The Freebooter on the Baltic Sea (1857)
  • Viktor Rydberg: Singoalla (1857)
  • Viktor Rydberg: The Last Athenian (1859)
  • Viktor Rydberg: The Gunsmith (1891)
  • August Strindberg: The Red Room (1879)
  • August Strindberg: Hemsöborna (1887)
  • Selma Lagerlöf: Gösta Berling's Saga (1891)
  • Verner von Heidenstam: The Caroline Islands (1897)
  • Hjalmar Söderberg: Doctor Glass (1905)
  • Moa Martinson: Women and Apple Trees (1933)
  • Karin Boye: Kallocain (1940)
  • Jan Fridegård: Trägudars land (1940) (according to Moberg a "masterpiece")
  • Jan Fridegård: The Dawn People (1944)
  • Jan Fridegård: Sacrificial smoke (1949)
  • Harry Martinsson: The Road to Klockrike (1948)
  • Eyvind Johnson: The Swell of the Beaches (1946)
  • Eyvind Johnson: Dreams of roses and fire
  • Eyvind Johnson: The Time of His Grace (1960)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: Ride tonight! (1941)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: Traitor Land (1967)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: The Emigrants (1949)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: The Immigrants (1952)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: The Settlers (1956)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: The Last Letter to Sweden (1959)
  • Vilhelm Moberg: Your Time on Earth (1963)
  • Per Anders Fogelström: City series (1960-1968)
  • Sven Delblanc: Moria land (1987)

Works of poetry and collections

Books for children and young people

  • Viktor Rydberg: The Adventures of Little Vigg on Christmas Eve (1875)
  • Selma Lagerlöf: Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey through Sweden (1907)
  • Astrid Lindgren: Pippi Longstocking (1945)
  • Astrid Lindgren: Mio, my Mio (1954)
  • Astrid Lindgren: Emil inönneberga (1963)
  • Astrid Lindgren: The Brothers Lionheart (1973)
  • Astrid Lindgren: Ronja Rövardotter (1981)
  • Anna-Maria Roos: Sörgården (1912)
  • Anna-Maria Roos: In Ennemo (1912)

Literature of the landscapes

Just as the Nordic countries and Sweden have their own literary canon, each region has its own set of authors and classics, as well as its own history. Here we bring together the literature of the regions.

Småland

Ångermanland