Doctor Glas

Epistolary novel by Hjalmar Söderberg

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Swedish. (August 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the Swedish article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Swedish Wikipedia article at [[:sv:Doktor Glas]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|sv|Doktor Glas}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

0-385-72267-2 (recent edition)OCLC49925067

Dewey Decimal

839.73/72 21LC ClassPT9875.S6 D613 2002

Doctor Glas is a 1905 epistolary novel by Hjalmar Söderberg which tells the story of a physician in 19th-century Sweden who deals with moral and love issues.

Synopsis

The novel is about Dr. Tyko Gabriel Glas who is a respected physician in Stockholm. The story is told in the form of a diary and follows Doctor Glas as he struggles with depression. The antagonist is Reverend Gregorius, a morally corrupt clergyman. Gregorius' beautiful young wife confides in Dr. Glas that her sex life is making her miserable and asks for his help. Glas falls in love with her and agrees to help even though she already has another lover. He attempts to intervene, but the Reverend refuses to give up his "marital rights" — she must have sex with him whether she likes it or not. So, in order to make his love happy, he begins to plot her husband's murder. The novel also deals with issues such as abortion, women's rights, suicide, euthanasia, and eugenics. Not surprisingly, the book triggered a violent campaign against its author who was subsequently vilified in Swedish literary circles.

English translations

In 1963, the first English edition of this novel was published. It featured an introduction by author William Sansom.
In 2002, the latest edition was published by Anchor Books with an introduction by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.

Prequel

In 2004, Swedish author Bengt Ohlsson wrote a book named Gregorius using Söderberg's character Gregorius and expanded upon his background, explaining why he has become so morally corrupt when readers meet him in Doctor Glas.