Background
Sophie Bolander was the daughter of the factory owner Gustav Erik Bolander and Johanna Kristina Carlström.
Sophie Bolander was the daughter of the factory owner Gustav Erik Bolander and Johanna Kristina Carlström.
She is most famed for her participation in the contemporary debate in gender issues. Her anti-aristocratic novel »Trolldomstecknet» has been regarded as one of the first tendency novels in Sweden. During the 1850s, many of her novels was published as serials in papers such as Göteborgs Handelsoch Sjöfartstidning, Postoch Inrikes Tidningar and Aftonbladet.
Her novels were romance stories, often in historical setting.
Bolander is mostly known for her participation in the contemporary gender debate. Her writings focused on marriage and motherhood as the one and only true goal for a woman.
Fredrika Bremer remarked about this, that Sophie Bolander was only prepared to meet her halfway. However, Bolander was, in this aspect, supporting a common view among contemporary moderate reformists.
Her novel Qvinnan medical förmyndare (Woman with Guardian) was a conservative response to the novel Qvinnan utan förmyndare (Woman without Guardian) by Amelie von Strussenfelt, which was a part of the contemporary debate about the minority of adult unmarried women, which were legally under the guardianship of their closest male relative.