for Garborg, as has been said,
is himself peasant, and he has fought the fight and suffered the
anguish of the new culture attained with incalculable sacrifice.
'Peasant Students' is undoubtedly his greatest work. Nowhere else has
he indicated more clearly his seriousness of purpose, or worked out
his theme with more effectiveness. The hero, Daniel Braut, is the
representative of the ideal student, a son of the people who shall
strive for "poetry and the soul" and introduce the elements of culture
among his class. Manual labor is his aversion; and at last, forced by
the weakness of his nature and the necessity of his poverty, he goes
over to the ranks of philistinism, marries a woman of property, and
studies theology. Both books are stories of high ideals and
humiliating compromises. The author's pessimism is in the ascendant,
and in the end the lower nature conquers.

In 'Mannfolk' (1886) he takes up a different theme, the relation of
the sexes, a question which he treats with startling frankness.
Garborg is a realist in so far that he prefers to depict life as it
is, well knowing that fiction cannot approach truth in point of
interest. He bears true testimony of what he sees and knows, but his
realism is very far removed from the naturalism of the French school.

Following 'Peasant Students' appeared in 1884 'Forteljinger og Sogar'
(Narratives and Tales), a volume of stories dealing sometimes with
subjects generally proscribed. Of his other works the most important
are the narrative 'Hjaa ho Mor' (With Mama), 'Kolbotnbrev og andre
Skildringar' (Kolbotn Letters and Other Sketches: 1890), the novels
'Traette Maend' (Weary Souls: 1891), 'Fred' (Peace: 1893), and the drama
'Uforsonlige' (The Irreconcilables: 1888).

After being deprived of his government position upon the publication
of 'Mannfolk,' Arne Garborg retired with his wife and child into the
solitude of the mountains, where for two years he lived and wrote in
his saeter hut; but at last, overcome by the loneliness of this
isolated life, he left Norway and settled in Germany.

THE CONFLICT OF THE CREEDS

From 'A Freethinker'

The noise of carriage wheels increased. The carriage drove up before
the door, and all the people of the parsonage sprang up in joy. Ragna
however reddened somewhat. A minute after, both Hans Vangen and
Eystein Hauk stood in the room. Hans embraced his parents and his
sister, and on the surface was happy; Hauk greeted them kin