 Cover of 1st edition | |
| Author | Lars Lönnroth |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | various artists |
| Cover artist | Antoine Watteau |
| Language | Swedish |
| Subject | Carl Michael Bellman |
| Genre | Literary criticism |
| Published | 2005 |
| Publisher | Albert Bonniers Förlag |
| Media type | hardback |
| Pages | 405 |
| ISBN | 978-9100572457 |
Ljuva karneval! (Sweet Carnival!) is a 2005 book about the work of Sweden's national bard, the 18th century poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman, by the Swedish literary scholar Lars Lönnroth. Bellman is the central figure in Swedish song, known in particular for his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles. Lönnroth, who has studied Bellman since the 1960s, aims to give an overview of Bellman's work, describing the essence of Bellman's art: giving a frolicking one-man performance, religious or profane, through adapted tunes, imitated crowd sounds and speech in different languages, and songs in varied genres. He distinguishes carefully between the art and the person of Bellman, who in his view was by no means as drunken and debauched as the cast of his Epistles.
The text is illustrated with a selection, admired by critics, of halftone images of drawings, engravings, paintings, and sculptures.
The book has been well received by critics, who write that Lönnroth brings Bellman to life as a performance artist. They have praised its coverage of the Epistles as well as of Bellman's lesser-known works, and suggested that it will become the standard reference on his poetry.