ABSTRACT
Stefano Evangelista juxtaposes the early reception of the Swedish decadent writer Ola Hansson (1860–1925) in Britain and France, comparing the ways in which Hansson’s controversial work was met by the literary avant-gardes of the two countries, within the context of their distinctive histories of reception of Scandinavian literature. He also compares Hansson’s first English and French translators, George Egerton and Jean de Néthy (pseudonym for Emmy de Némethy). Here, the role of transnational networks is emphasized, as well as that of the still unacknowledged importance of women’s agency, showing women as active cultural agents and mediators of—not only Nordic—decadence.
