Anna Munch née Dahl (4 August 1856 – 29 November 1932) was a Norwegian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

whose works address conflicts between the sexes, frequently based on her own experience of marriage and divorce. After a difficult relationship with her first husband Peter Munch, she met the much younger writer Sigurd Mathiesen whom she later married. Her early novel ''Kvinder. Et Stykke Udviklingshistorie. Kristiania-fortælling'' (Women. A Piece on Development History. Christiania Tale, 1892) is about women artists. Her principal work, the novel ''Glæde'' (Joy, 1904), presents a sensitive description of the utopian world of childhood.

Early life and education

Born on 4 August 1856 in the

Vestre Aker Vestre Aker (Western Aker) is a List of boroughs of Oslo, borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. It has a population of 50,157 as of 2020. The previous Aker Municipality was merged into the city of Oslo in 1948. The borough of Vestre Aker was org ...

(now a district of Oslo), Munch was the daughter of the physician Ludvig Vilhelm Dahl (1826–90) and his wife Anna Cathrine Lyders née Bonnevie (1835–93). She was the first of the family's 11 children, who included the artists Cecilie Dahl (1858–1943), Nils Alstrup Dahl (1876–1940), and Ingerid Dahl (1861–1944). She was raised in Christiania and

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

and experienced a difficult childhood subject to her father's view that women were less skilled than men. Munch completed her education at Nissens Pigeskole.

Career

After leaving her first husband in the 1890s, Munch devoted herself to writing. In her first novel, ''To mennesker'' (''Two People'', 1898), Munch describes her passionate love for the writer

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to conscio ...

. Her second, ''Kvinder'' (1989), covers the contrasts for women between marriage and free love and presents the pleasures of the Bohemian way of life. Her later writing evokes contradictions between erotic love and platonic relationships which provide for lasting companionship. The theme is also central to her play ''Psyche'' (1893). Her most successful work, ''Glæde'' (1910), is a semi-autobiographical novel describing the experiences of Ester's now lost utopian childhood as she suffers the ordeals of later life.

Personal life

In 1883, Munch married Peter Anker Ragnvald Munch, an officer and teacher, with whom she had a daughter Signe. Due to his poor treatment of her, including refusing to provide her with paper on which she could write, she referred to him as a tyrant. She dissolved the marriage in the 1890s. In 1910, she married the writer Sigurd Mathiesen (1871–1958). After coping with difficult tines in

Stavern Stavern is a town in Larvik Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The town is located at the mouth of the Larviksfjorden along the Skagerrak coast, about south of the town of Larvik. Historically, Stavern was a self-governing municipality ...

, a small town in Norway, the couple moved to Denmark.Though the couple initially enjoyed a happy relationship, they slowly lost interest in each other. Munch died in Oslo on 29 November 1932.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munch, Anna 1856 births 1932 deaths 19th-century Norwegian novelists 19th-century Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian novelists 20th-century Norwegian women writers 19th-century Norwegian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Norwegian dramatists and playwrights Writers from Trondheim