185
See also: Bleak House 146–49 ■ On the Road 264–65 ■ The Bell Jar 290 ■
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 332T
he roman à clef, or “novel
with a key,” is literature
that depicts real people or
events thinly disguised as fiction,
the “key” being the relationship
between the real and the fictitious.
Such works often use satire and
humor to comment on politics,
scandals, and controversial figures.Deceit and corruption
The Red Room, a novel by Swedish
author August Strindberg (1849–
1912), who was also a much
admired playwright, is a satire of
Stockholm society, akin to the work
of English writer Charles Dickens
in its biting critique. Considered to
be the first modern Swedish novel
in its style and content, the book
introduces Arvid Falk, Strindberg’s
alter ego and a naive idealist.
Falk is a young civil servant
when we meet him, so frustrated
by the bureaucracy and drudgery
of his job that he gives it up to
become a journalist and author. He
encounters characters from theater,
politics, and business, drawn from
real personalities in the Stockholmelite—and, disheartened, he soon
realizes that Swedish society is
riddled with deceit and corruption.
The title of the novel refers to
a room in a Stockholm restaurant
where bohemians gathered. Here,
Falk seeks solace with artists
and writers to contemplate the
vicissitudes of life. The comic
descriptions of the characters he
encounters provide a sense of the
tensions between bohemian and
bourgeois life in Stockholm. ■DEPICTING REAL LIFE
IN SWEDEN ALL WE DO
IS TO CELEBRATE JUBILEES
THE RED ROOM (1879), AUGUST STRINDBERG
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Roman à clefBEFORE
1642–69 Readers would
have recognized depictions
of important society figures
in the roman à clef novels of
French writer Madeleine de
Scudéry, such as Clelia.1816 The characters in the
scandalous novel Glenarvon,
by the English aristocrat
Lady Caroline Lamb, are
thinly disguised versions of
her ex-lover Lord Byron and
others in her own privileged
London social circle.AFTER
1957 On the Road, by Jack
Kerouac, continues the tradition
of the roman à clef, detailing
his travels in North America.
1963 American writer Sylvia
Plath’s semiautobiographical
The Bell Jar depicts a young
woman’s descent into mental
illness.Train yourself to regard the
world from a bird’s-eye view,
and you will discover how
petty and insignificant
everything is.
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