Arthur Omre

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Arthur Omre

Arthur Omre (* December 17, 1887 as Ole Arthur Antonisen in Brunlanes (today part of Larvik ), † August 16, 1967 in Porsgrunn ) was a Norwegian writer who, with his socially critical novels The Smuggler and The Flight, new topics and a new writing style introduced into Norwegian literature.

Life

Arthur Omre led a restless life as a seaman, engineer and journalist in Europe, the USA and Asia. In 1932 he returned to Norway. He was imprisoned for some time for criminal offenses (smuggling spirits, fraud and resisting the police).

At the age of 46 he caused a sensation with his little debut novel The Smuggler ( Smuglere , 1935). The work is about people in everyday reality in conflict with the law: about smugglers, burglars, convicts, informers and customs officers.

“ The bare, rugged shape looked new, and superficial readers thought Omre was cold-hearted. But he was no more than z. B. the young Hemingway ; behind the hard mask hides a living, suffering face. "

- Nordic literary history '

In his second novel ( Die Flucht , 1936) Omre describes a man on the run from prison, but with the description of the inner restlessness and fear he shows that in his longing for freedom the hunted is also on the run from something unexplained in his Inside is.

In Bridge of Sighs ( Sukkenes bro , 1937) the author tries to give a psychological explanation of the criminal with flashbacks to the past and at the same time shows that there is often only a small distance between the common man and the criminal. In Intermesso he shows how even a kind-hearted person can become a murderer . In the psychological novel The Evil Eye ( Det onde øie , 1940) he shows that the normal and the abnormal can sometimes hardly be distinguished from one another .

Omre wrote numerous short stories and published collections of short stories; he also wrote some dramas. His play Linedansere ( tightrope walker , 1945) is a “satire on Oslo business people who did not want to spoil it with the German occupiers or the resistance movement”. He translated Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck into Norwegian. In 1938 he received the Gyldendal scholarship. The literary critic and non-fiction author Pål Espen Søbye published a biography of Omre in 1992.

Works

Norwegian editions

  • 1935: Smuglere
  • 1936: fluctuations
  • 1937: Sukkenes bro
  • 1938: Kristinus Bergman
  • 1940: Det onde øie
  • 1945: Linedansere
  • 1953: Vagabond i Gosen
  • 1965: Frydenlund, 1965

German-language editions

  • Intermezzo . Novel. Translated from the Norwegian by Tabitha von Bonin. Berlin 1940
  • The men in the burrow . Novel. Translated from the Norwegian by Tabitha von Bonin. Akros, Hamburg 1953
  • The escape . Novel. Translated from the Norwegian by Elisabeth Ihle. Universitas, Berlin 1953
  • The smuggler . Novel. Translated from the Norwegian by Ernst Tessloff. Akros, Hamburg 1953
  • Eel in curry . Stories. From the Norwegian by Alexander Grossmann. Structure, Berlin 1967

Film adaptations

  • 1948: Kristinus Bergman (Direction: Bjarne Henning-Jensen)
  • 1951: Ukjent mann (based on the novel Die Flucht ; director: Astrid Henning-Jensen)
  • 1953: Flukt fra paradiset (based on the story of the same name; director: Toralf Sandø)
  • 1965: Skjær i sjøen (based on the story Sensommer ; director: Knut Andersen)
  • 1968: Smuglere (based on the novel Der Schmuggler ; Director: Rolf Clemens)

literature

  • Philip Houm: Arthur Omre . In: Nordic literary history . Volume II. Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2105-6 .
  • Espen Søbye : Ingen vei hjem: Arthur Omre. En biografi . Aschehoug, Oslo 1992, ISBN 82-03-26054-3 .
  • Omre, Arthur . In: Gero von Wilpert (ed.): Lexicon of world literature LZ . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-59050-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nordic literary history . Volume II. 1984, page 617
  2. ↑ Horst Bien in: Northern European literatures . VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1980, p. 259
personal data
SURNAME Omre, Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ole Arthur Antonisen (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian author and translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Brunlanes
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1967
Place of death Porsgrunn