
Set in the Finnish countryside of Savonia in the tumultuous year of 1808, the play opens within the grand salon of Paroni Tähtinen’s manor. The house buzzes with the genteel rituals of the aristocracy—smoke, polished furniture, and whispered conversations—while the looming threat of war hangs unseen beyond the windows. Through the lively banter of the Paroni, his spirited daughter Anna, and the ever‑observant servant Maiju, listeners are introduced to a world where honor, lineage, and duty clash with the stirrings of personal desire.
Anna finds herself torn between the expectations of her father and the pull of her own heart. She speaks of the comfort she feels with the learned pastor’s brother, the Savonian soldier Kaarlo, whose modest charm offers a stark contrast to the aristocratic matches her father envisions. As the Paroni’s worries about reputation and the “proper” name for a future husband surface, the audience senses an impending struggle between love, social standing, and the larger conflict that threatens to reshape their lives.
Language
fi
Duration
~35 minutes (34K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2014-11-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
1838–1919
A pioneering Finnish writer, she is remembered as the first woman to write fiction in Finnish and as an early shaper of the Finnish short story. Her work helped open new space for women in Finnish literature during the 19th century.
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