HISTORICAL MINIATURES

by

AUGUST STRINDBERG (Translated by CLAUD FIELD, M.A.)




PREFACE

Maximilian Harden, the well-known critic, writes in the _Zukunft_
(7th September 1907) of the _Historical Miniatures_:

"A very interesting book, as might be expected, for it is
Strindberg's. And I am bold enough to say a book which should and
must be successful with the public. The writer is not here concerned
with Sweden, nor with Natural History. A philosopher and poet here
describes the visions which a study of the history of mankind has
called up before his inner eye. Julian the Apostate and Peter the
Hermit appear on the stage, together with Attila and Luther,
Alcibiades and Eginhard. We see the empires of the Pharaohs and the
Czars, the Athens of Socrates and the 'Merry England' of Henry VIII.
There are twenty brief episodes, and each of them is alive. So
powerful is the writer's faculty of vision, that it compels belief
in his descriptions of countries and men."

"The question whether these cultured circles really were as
described, hardly occurs to us. Never has the remarkable writer
shown a more comprehensive grasp. Since the days of the _Confession