Bibliophile Peeter Tulviste - Estonian literature of the 19th century

19th-century Estonian literature from Peeter Tulviste’s collection is represented at the exhibition with works from various genres. The oldest is a popular science book by pastor, linguist and founder of Estonian journalism Otto Wilhelm Masing: Pühhapäwa Wahhe-luggemissed (1818), which aimed to explain the “works of god”, or the matters of the world, to the rural people. This is followed by the first novel in Estonian, Norema Robinsoni ello ja juhtumised, translated by Pärnu sacristan and schoolteacher Heinrich Gottlieb Lorenzsonn in 1822–1823, published in 1842. It is a translation of Robinson der Jüngere. Ein Lesebuch für Kinder, by German philanthropic educator and youth author Joachim Heinrich Campe, based on Robinson Crusoe by the English writer Daniel Defoe. This is a good example of early Estonian literature being deeply rooted in the European literary tradition. Robinson Crusoe captured the hearts of readers across Europe, and several versions of the Robinson story were published in Estonian around the same time.

The next work chronologically is also a translation: Linno sulled ehk pois Rene (1858) by Kolga-Jaani sacristan and parish teacher Franz Heinrich Willberg, based on the writings of German youth author Karl Gustav Nieritz.

The main body of Tulviste’s collection of 19th-century Estonian literature consists of works (including translations) by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald and Lydia Koidula. The romantic tale Paar sammokest rändamise-teed, inspired by the German writer Jean Paul, was written in 1855 following the new orthography, while Koidula’s translation Ojamölder ja temma minnia of Ludwig Würdig’s long-forgotten story Auf der Grabenmühle was published in 1864, still using the old orthography. The collection also includes Kreutzwald’s translation of the religious poetry by the German poet Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Witschel, Rahunurme lilled, in two volumes, and the second edition (1884) of Koidula’s popular play Särane mulk ehk Sada wakka tangusoola.

Besides the classics of the national awakening period, there are fictional prose works from the 1870s (by Lilli Suburg, Eduard Bornhöhe and Jakob Pärn), and poetry collections from the 1890s (by Karl Eduard Sööt, A. Piirikivi and Anna Haava).

All these books are part of the canon of early Estonian literature. Most were published in Tartu, only one in Tallinn and one in Pärnu. The selection in this exhibition does not include religious literature, which still dominated the Estonian literary scene in the 19th century, the epic Kalevipoeg or the early works of Juhan Liiv.

Liina Lukas

Find out more about the exhibition here.