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Rautatie
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Wikipedia article
'Rautatie' (Finnish for "railroad") is the first novel by the Finnish writer Juhani Aho, published in 1884. Its style has been called national miniature realism. The novel is about the quiet life of a couple living in the middle of the woods and their attempts at imagining what a railroad is based on what they have heard. 'Rautatie' is one of the classics of Finnish literature, and has had more than twenty editions by the start of the 21st century. It has been called Aho's first "artistic full hit".Laitinen, Kai: Suomen kirjallisuuden historia, p. 236 In 2007, WSOY published a perfect copy of the 1892 colour edition illustrated by Eero Jrnefelt. A TV film by the same name was made based on the novel in 1973. The novel has also been adapted to numerous plays.
The central elements in 'Rautatie' are the imaginations of small-time agrarians and the differences between poor, far-away places and richer places, and the social gap between the "lords" and the "common people". One important element is over-use of alcoholic beverages, which is a common theme in Finnish literature as the start of decadent events.Laitinen, Kai: Suomen kirjallisuuden historia, p. 238
Background
'Rautatie' was written in spring and summer 1884 and published in December in the same year. Aho had become familiar with the "common people" in his home village of Vierem in Iisalmi from 1876. Starting from his matriculation in 1880 he had frequently travelled by train between his home and Helsinki. People living in far-away places attached fantasy to the railroad in their minds. The railroad was a subject of political controversy during the diets in the 1880s, which Aho closely followed as a journalist.
Aho's closest friends included the Jrnefelt family, whose critic significantly influenced the artistic form of 'Rautatie'. Especially Kasper Jrnefelt was involved in fixing the miniature novel page by page. Minna Canth praised 'Rautatie' as a masterpiece already when it was first published. She got to read the script in August 1884.Juhani Aho part I, p. 563
Notes
There have been hundreds of thousands of copies of 'Rautatie' printed in its original Finnish. An English translation by Owen Witesman was published in 2013 as 'The Railroad'. It has also been translated to Swedish ('Jrnvgen'), Estonian ('Raudtee'), German ('Die Eisenbahn') and to four other languages. The Finnish edition has also been published as 'Rautatie eli Kertomus ukosta ja akasta, jotka eivt olleet sit ennen nhneet' ("The railroad, that is a tale of a man and a woman, who had not seen it ever before"). 'Rautatie' has also been published as a free audiobook.
The Kuopio-Iisalmi part of the Savonia railroad was opened in 1902, and the Lapinlahti railway station was also opened at the time. When Aho was writing his first novel, the railroad part was still being planned.
Sources
* Laitinen, Kai: 'Suomen kirjallisuuden historia', Otava,
* Kodin suuret klassikot, Juhani Aho part I, Weilin+Gs, 1989,
* [https://archive.org/details/rautatie_ta_librivox Archive.org/rautatie]
* [http://yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=4&ag=90&t=&a=5367 Yle.fi]
References
Category:19th-century Finnish novels
Category:1884 novels
Category:Novels set in Finland
Category:1884 debut novels
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