Alexander Kielland - Skipper Worse

Alexander Kielland - Skipper Worse

Business, religion, sexuality, youth, identity and hypocrisy – these are some of the themes covered in late nineteenth-century Norwegian author Alexander Kielland's wide-ranging, though remarkably slim, novel. Skipper Worse addresses these themes without allowing them to swamp the thrust and verve of the story of Jacob 'Skipper' Worse, a strong man in his middle years who falls into an ill-advised marriage with a much younger, and devoutly religious, woman.

The novel opens with Skipper Worse returning home from Rio de Janeiro on The Hope of the Family, a ship owned by Consul Garman. The Consul's business has been declining in recent years, and it was feared that these losses had been compounded by the disappearance of Worse's ship – but no! He has returned. Added to that, a religious sect who follows the teaching of Hans Nielsen Hauge has grown in influence, becoming rich and powerful through their hard work, their piety – and their greed.

Skipper Worse is a stout fellow, the sort of man who would never cheat a Norwegian, but who has no problems swindling Germans and Swedes. Honesty, hard-work, and the prospect of a modest profit at the end of a successful trip is what drives him. “In his youth, Jacob Worse had had a wild streak, and he was still a cheerful middle aged man of fifty years old. His body was strong and short, his face a real skipper's face – square, ruddy, truthful, jovial.” He is pleased to be home but saddened that one of his friend's is far away, and he becomes worried for Consul Garman when he learns that his company is in danger of bankruptcy. Worse offers a significant sum of money to help keep the company solvent, with Garman only allowing it if Worse will become a partner in the business. And here everything changes.

The trappings of a man of influence – for that is what Skipper Worse is, now that he is part owner of Consul Garman's company – rest heavily upon Worse. He attempts to help a member of his crew with a girl he is interested in seeing, and finds himself embroiled within the social sphere of the Hauge's, which includes the lovely, severe, Sara. She herself loves another, but her mother, Madam Torvestad, sees influence and wealth in Skipper Worse, and persuades her daughter to marry him. This theme of pursuing wealth and power at the expense of something Kielland perceives as truly important – love, honesty, fairness to your fellow man – recurs throughout the novel. As Consul Garman says early on, “'Yes, there we are,” shouted the consul. 'That's how it goes these days. One wishes to be better than the other, and so they both borrow, borrow and speculate; but when the day of reckoning arrives, yes, then it hurts.'”

But the town itself, and the life of Norwegians, far from being relegated to the background to provide colour, are instead given prominence and respect. There are many scenes where the ordinary folk are shown as ruddy and giving, hard workers who demand a fair and simple life for their toil. A scene that combines a fire with the first influx of herring for the season is particularly strong. Kielland shows the reader the invigorating happiness that comes from people banding together to combat catastrophe, and to celebrate a hard earned success. Kielland portrays the work class people as living well and the richer folk as less honest, revealing his thoughts in passages such as these: “There were scarcely any civil servants who rejoiced in a good fishing season, other than pastors, for that was when the offerings flowed liberally. But when the herring flowed over the land, when money was spread among all the people so everyone could clear themselves and save a little, then the lawyers complained loudly about hard time.

When, however, people had it hard, when the fish or harvest failed, when the scarcity of money dried up the fountain so that the bankruptcies and foreclosures came fast with high percentages and heavy administrative fees, then the lawyers thrived.”

Kielland is a subtle writer with a light touch. Though our sympathies lie predominantly with our hero, Skipper Worse, and though we feel his misery as he slips further into religious torpor and accelerated old age, there are no real 'bad' or 'evil' characters. Kielland is skilled enough, and compassionate enough, to provide at least a brief window into the lives and motives of his entire range of characters. In a sentence he can provide the reader with a fair rendering of a character, such as here with Henriette, “It was Henriette; there was no way to mistake that: two or three careless, hasty steps, then a fall and a little noise, then more steps again – the sound of a girl not used to wearing a long dress.” We know this girl, now, we can judge as to her age and her experience, and everything further that Kielland writes of Henriette expands upon this initial impression. Kielland's language is not flowery but it would be wrong to say it is merely functional. He is an author who demands a lot from each word, eschewing eloquence for concrete expression. Christopher Fauske's new translation of Skipper Worse displays Kielland's skill with accurate expression and short, sharp insight well, adhering admirably to the Norwegian author's intent for brevity and care.

The plot of Skipper Worse is not overly complex, but the characters and their interactions are. There is a lot to this novel, from religious criticism to an indictment of voracious capitalism to a celebration of the working class. Kielland weaves these themes together to create a sturdy tapestry of Norwegian life, moving easily from the rich to the poor, from the educated to the crude, from the powerful to the meek. It is, at times, astonishing the range and depth afforded to the characters and situations in a novel that is only one hundred and fifty pages long. Kielland was a well-respected novelist in his time, and along with Jonas Lie, Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, was considered part of the 'Four Greats' of Norwegian literature. A novel like Skipper Worse shows us why, and it is refreshing and rewarding to read a new, available translation of an author who has been sadly neglected in English.

Author	Alexander Kielland
Title	Skipper Worse
Translator	Christopher Fauske
Nationality	Norwegian
Publisher	Cross-Cultural Communications
Published	2009 (English) 1882 (Norwegian)
Pages	164
Availability: ---Amazon (US)