The great transformation in Bjornson's literary manner and
choice of subjects was marked by his sending home from abroad,
in the season of 1874-75, two plays, "The Editor" and "A
Bankruptcy." It was two years later that Ibsen sent home from
abroad "The Pillars of Society," which marked a similar turning
point in his artistic career. It is a curious coincidence that
the plays of modern life produced during this second period by
these two men are the same in number, an even dozen in each case.
Besides the two above named, these modern plays of Bjornson are,
with their dates, the following: "The King" (1877), "Leonarda" (1879),
"The New System" (1879), "A Glove" (1883), "Beyond the
Strength I." (1883), "Geography and Love" (1885), "Beyond the
Strength II." (1895), "Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg" (1898),
"Laboremus" (1901), and "At Storhove" (1902). Since the
cessation of Ibsen's activity, Bjornson has outrun him in
the race, adding "Daglannet" (1904), and "When the New Wine
Blooms" (1909) to the list above given. Besides these
fourteen plays, however, he has published seven important
volumes of prose fiction during the last thirty-five years.
The titles and dates are as follows: "Magnhild" (1877),
"Captain Mansana" (1879), "Dust" (1882), "Flags Are Flying
in City and Harbor" (1884), "In God's Ways," (1889),
"New Tales" (1894), (of which collection "Absalom's Hair"
is the longest and most important), and "Mary" (1906). The
achievement represented by this list is all the more
extraordinary when we consider the fact that for the greater
part of the thirty-five years which these plays and novels
cover, their author has been, both as a public speaker and
as a writer for the periodical press, an active participant
in the political and social life of his country.