Kilpi, Volter

▪ Finnish writer

born Dec. 12, 1874, Kustavi, Fin.

died June 13, 1939, Turku

      Finnish novelist and social critic who was an exponent of the modern experimental novel.

      Beginning as an “aesthetic” novelist, Kilpi turned to descriptions of 19th-century Finnish island life. In his important novel Alastalon salissa (1933; “In the Parlour at Alastalo”), a work of more than 900 pages, he used interior monologues, long flashback episodes, and exact, detailed description to give an account of the events in a six-hour period. In this work, a group of peasants are portrayed as functioning on a number of simultaneous levels, and their consciousness is meticulously described during their interaction in a parlour. Kilpi uses his experimental technique in a broad, realistic depiction of a timeless, hierarchial social system.

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