Hjalmar Söderberg is the foremost literary representative of the Swedish fin-de-siècle and as such belongs to a significant trend in European literature at the time. He was especially influenced by two writers, both of them from Scandinavia: the Danish author Herman Bang, whose novel Haablose Slaegter (Generations without Hope, 1880) made a tremendous impression on young Söderberg, and the Norwegian writer Arne Garborg, whose novel Traette Maend (Weary Man, 1891) was equally important to him.

Following in the footsteps of such Stockholm-born authors as Carl Mikael Bellman and August Strindberg, Söderberg has contributed distinctive descriptions of the Swedish capital, which at the time was a city rapidly changing from a provincial town to a modern metropolis with new fashionable buildings, parks, and avenues. Above all, Söderberg captures the flaneur spirit of the time, the mood of an observant city stroller...