The Red Room

This nineteenth-century Swedish classic that satirizes Stockholm society is “a scathing attack on every aspect of modern life” (Rosalind Porter, The Guardian, “1000 Novels Everyone Must Read”). Disillusioned with chasing such meaningless achievements as wealth and influence, Arvid Falk leaves his career as a civil servant to embark on a life of artistic pursuits. He longs for the freedom that becoming a writer will offer him, much to the chagrin of his older brother who has conned him out of part of his inheritance. But Falk’s journey towards beauty and meaning hits a few speedbumps. The counterculture characters he once envied are in reality no better or worse than the cogs in the corporate machine. They’re faux intellectuals willing to sell out to the highest bidder, kowtowing to the mainstream sensibility they pretend to deplore. The enlightenment that Falk seeks is nowhere to be found. In this witty study of human nature, August Strindberg skewers the institutions of art, politics, capitalism, religion, and rebellion. Nothing is safe from his keen observations on the hypocrisy of modern society.

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