The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Bergman, Hjalmar
(yäl´mär br´ymän) (KEY) , 1883–1931, Swedish novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer. A popular and prolific writer, Bergman wrote from the background of an unhappy childhood and chronic mental depression. His works are characterized by insight into the ambivalence of human emotions. Bergman’s individual style combines a basically pessimistic view with ironic humor, as in the play Swedenhielms [the Swedenhielm family] (1925) and the novels God’s Orchid (1919, tr. 1924) and The Head of the Firm (1924, tr. 1936).
r´y
män) (KEY) , 1883–1931, Swedish novelist, dramatist, and short-story writer. A popular and prolific writer, Bergman wrote from the background of an unhappy childhood and chronic mental depression. His works are characterized by insight into the ambivalence of human emotions. Bergman’s individual style combines a basically pessimistic view with ironic humor, as in the play Swedenhielms [the Swedenhielm family] (1925) and the novels God’s Orchid (1919, tr. 1924) and The Head of the Firm (1924, tr. 1936).
