In taking Christiania life for the subject of "Livsslaven," Jonas Lie
attempted for the second time to break down the preconceived opinion of
critics, that such a subject did not come within his province. They were
accustomed to have tales of sea-life from his pen, and could not readily
be persuaded that another sphere of life might afford equal scope for
his talent. "Thomas Ross," published in 1878, had treated of Christiania
life, and had attracted but little attention; and now, in the spring of
1883, appeared this "story of a smith's apprentice, with his struggles
for existence and his ultimate final failure owing to the irresistible
indulgence of a passionate physical instinct." At first this too seemed
to be a failure. To use the words of Arne Garborg, a Norwegian author
and critic, Lie "had spoken--cried out in the passion or agony of his
soul, and people stood there quite calm and as if they had heard
nothing;" there seemed to be a total lack of sympathetic comprehension
on the part of the public. In the end, however, the book found its way
to the hearts of its readers, and, to quote Mr. Gosse's words on the
subject, "achieved a very great success; it was realistic and modern in
a certain sense and to a discreet degree, and it appealed, as scarcely
any Norwegian novel had done before, to all classes of Scandinavian
society."

Lie himself, in speaking of this work, says that a writer should "aim
at presenting his subject in such a way that the reader may see, hear,
feel, and comprehend it with the utmost possible intensity." This
precept he has certainly put into practice in the present instance, for
the subject is treated with such power and so full a grasp, that in
reading the book one feels an actual anxiety, an oppression as of
approaching disaster. This, at any rate, is the case with the original,
and I trust that its power has not been altogether lost in the process