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The central themes of Sillanp ’s output are already staked out in his debut novel. These include the difficulty of sustaining self-esteem, problems of identity, sexuality and the incomprehensibility of death. Sillanp ’s characters have a poor awareness of their own needs. They do not know what motives prompt their actions and are therefore astonished at their own behaviour. When internal conflicts and reality threaten, they flee into their fantasies.

Mika Waltari (1908-79) is not only Finland’s internationally best known writer, but also by far the most versatile in terms of output. Yet his enormous productivity as an author of novels, plays, detective stories, cartoon books, fairy tales, travelogues and even wartime propaganda did nothing to lower his standard. Everything he wrote has held its own right across a broad front and the sense of historical reality found through his writer’s intuition continues to astonish scientists.

Waltari, who studied philosophy, aesthetics and literature in addition to theology, began his career with a booklet entitled “God in the Leading Role” (1925), which was published by the Finnish Seamen’s Mission Society. His breakthrough as a novelist came with the publication in 1928 of “Great Illusion”, a youthfully melancholic and very lucid reflection of the mood of life in the 1920s. From then on he was regarded as a typical Helsinki writer, whereas Sillanp , who came from the heart of the inland province of H me (Tavastia), drew his strength and inspiration from the Finnish rural heartland.

Yet the novel that earned Waltari international fame, “A Stranger came to the farm” (1937), described a triangular drama set in a lonely, dilapidated country house. The book has been published in 17 languages. Its great success convinced Waltari that he could write for international readerships, and he decided to do just that.

In 1945 he wrote “Sinuhe, the Egyptian”, which describes the life of its main character, a physician, in Egypt between 1390 and 1335 BC. The novel can also be read as an exposition of the Finnish middle class’s disappointment and the collapse of life values in the aftermath of a lost war.

With its lively character descriptions and many levels of meaning, Sinuhe is Waltari’s greatest achievement in the art of the story. It rapidly propelled him to dazzling world success and is the only Finnish book to have made it onto the bestseller charts in France and the USA. So far, too, it is the only book to have headed the American bestseller list for two years. It was also made into a movie (directed by Michael Curtiz, 1954).

In common with Sillanp , Waltari wrote about difficult things. He was interested in periods of intellectual upheaval in world history, the plight of humanism caught in the squeeze of tough material values, the eternal problem of good and evil, and people struggling in the cross-currents of ideologies.

The literature of Finland has a double root from which it continues to draw its vitality. One fork reaches far into the past, into the oral Finnish-language folk tradition and the sources of anonymous poetry, the world of the Kalevala. The other follows the Swedish-language mother culture deep into the European tradition, of which it remained a part long after Finland, as a result of war between Sweden and Russia, was separated and made an autonomous grand duchy of Russia in 1809. With the help of those links, more than a century and a half ago, an independent Finnish literature began to seek its place in European culture.

The national awakening stressed self-reliance, but also the desire rapidly to become a part of the literary world, to grasp Shakespeare in one hand and Dostoyevsky in the other and to create works equal to their genius in Finnish and Swedish. In the poetry of J.L. Runeberg, a Finnish ideal interpreted in the Swedish language and the European poetic tradition encountered one another both in individual feelings and in the historical vision of V nrikki Stoolin tarinat ( The tales of Ensign St l , 1848, 1860). The Kalevala, which appeared in 1849, was a composition by Elias L nnrot, of the Finnish people s poetic heritage, and Aleksis Kivi continued the shaping of the national identity with his independent creativity. Zachris Topelius was a master of the historical novel in the spirit of Walter Scott, particularly in his V lsk rin kertomuksia ( Tales of a barber-surgeon ), prose written in Swedish and immediately translated into Finnish.

Kivi s role as a key artistic figure in Finnish literature must be considered unique. He created the first Finnish plays, he gave form to lyric poetry that reflected the beauty of the Finnish language and wrote Seitsem n veljest ( Seven brothers , 1870), a novel which was at first met with opposition but later became a national symbol. The novel marked a step from depiction of ordinary people carried out in the spirit of idealistic romanticism toward realism. Clearing of virgin territory, a subject dear to Kivi, took on allegorical overtones: it meant working for the triumph of Finnishness in the cultural sphere.

Original realism

In the late 19th century, Finnish literature absorbed influences from European realism and naturalism strongly. At the same time, there opened up a connection with Russian literature, its demands of originality and faithfulness to reality. In Finland, realism took on a homespun aspect: there were plenty of wrongs to be exposed, authentic folk figures were sought in

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