How a 150-Year-Old Novel Made Finns a Nation of Readers
People in Finland read. A lot.
A recent survey by non-governmental organisation Finnish Reading Centre revealed that Finns had read more than usual during the coronavirus crisis.
A 2018 survey by Kantar TNS Oy, a leading market research company in Finland, found that reading books is the most popular way Finns spend leisure, with 56 percent of respondents choosing this activity.
Eurostat surveys from 2008 to 2015 in 15 European Union countries found that Finns spend 12 minutes reading books per day on average, just a minute less than Estonians who came out as the nation that reads the most.
Why do Finns read so much?
The answer lies in Seven Brothers (Seitsemän veljestä in Finnish), a novel that was published 150 years ago.
In fact, it was the first novel written in Finnish language, and went on to become the greatest Finnish novel of all time. It took Aleksis Kivi 10 years to write it.
Civilisation versus wilderness is the main theme of the book. It narrates the lives of seven brothers of the Jukola farm. Bonded by brotherly love, the impulsive, rowdy and carefree boys enjoy an adventurous life.
The trouble begins when the new church precentor remains adamant about spreading literacy in society. He wants to teach people how to read.
The brothers reluctantly go to his school but find the teaching repressive. They refuse to continue learning and escape.
Their longing for female companionship remains unfulfilled too. The eldest brother, Juhani, wants to marry the pretty girl, Venla, but she turns down his proposal.
The brothers are also told that they cannot marry without being confirmed and cannot be confirmed unless they learn how to read.
Frustrated, they plan to escape the societal restrictions and schooling by choosing to live in the wilderness. For them, doing so is an act of protest against the rules the society wants them to follow.
After escaping from school, they even meet a fortune teller and ask her, out of anger, to curse the precentor among others connected with the church.
Off they go to the forest then and start living there.
As time goes by, however, they realise that they cannot build a decent life this way.
They also realise they need to eradicate their illiteracy to participate in the community as respectable, civilised members.
One of the brothers, Aapo, tells the six others: “Let us learn hard brothers because the life deserves this toil and the world, as we noticed, is not a gathering of villains.”
The youngest brother, Eero, who is also the cleverest among the seven, finally takes reading lessons. He then teaches the others to read.
All brothers learn their catechism by heart in the end.
They then go back to their farm to start a new life. A big party is held to celebrate their return.
The vast lands of the farm are apportioned among the brothers. They also settle their old conflicts and disputes.
The key message Kivi conveyed in his book through the transformation of the brothers is hard to miss: Literacy is the cornerstone of building a good, civilised and decent life in the society.
“The activity of reading has been an integral component of the Finnish culture since those days,” writes Finnish education expert Dr Pasi Sahlberg in his book Finnish Lessons.
“Education has served as the main strategy for building a literate society and a nation that is today known by the world for its cultural and technological achievements. Therefore, Seven Brothers belongs to the list of core texts in most Finnish schools today,” he writes.
Interestingly, Seven Brothers received severe backlash when it was published. Many noted Finnish nationalists harshly criticised the book.
But its public reception took a U-turn following Finland’s independence from Russia in 1917.
It became a story of the creation of the Finnish nation.
It was several decades after Kivi’s death that Seven Brothers witnessed a dramatic change in its reception — from scathing rejection to sweeping admiration.
He could not witness the success of his creation. He had even struggled financially in his life and had mental health issues.