Author: Karen Engelmann

Cites

• EMil Larsson (1)
  • IN: The Stockholm Octavo (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The Stockholm Octavo will never appear in official documents; cartomancy is not the stuff of archives, and its primary participants were card players, tradesmen, and women -- seldom the focus of scholars. It is no less worthy of consideration for that, and so these notations. I have pieced the story together from fragments of memory -- most with a tendency to flatter the memoirist. These fragments are layered with information gleaned from government files, church registries, unreliable witnesses, outright liars, and people who "saw" things through the eyes of servants or acquaintances, were sworn to by family as far-flung as fifth cousins, who heard things third or fourth hand. A substantial core of sources endeavored to be forthright, for they had nothing to hide -- and in some cases happily spilled the words if the truth would drown a reputation they knew to be built on deception. I looked for overlap and confirming repetitions and patterns, and noted those sources of merit. But sometimes there were none, so some of what I will relate is build on speculation and hearsay. This is otherwise known as history.
    FROM: NULL, (1793), NULL, Sweden