The history of Estonian literature for a Finnish
reader Viron nykyisemmästä kirjallisuudesta
(Helsinki, 1856) by August Ahlqvist (1826–1889) discusses
mainly the first half of the 19th century, adding a brief survey
of the earlier period. In comparison with the previous authors
of Estonian literary historiography (J. H. Rosenplänter,
D. H. Jürgenson) A. Ahlqvist excels for a higher awareness
of method and theory, as well as for technical analysis. His
ideal is an original, aesthetically and humanistically oriented
national literature. Besides literature the work touches upon
various issues of Estonian history, linguistics, folklore, poetics,
ortography etc., thus providing for a cultural-historical perspective,
while the comparativist one is taken care of by references to
Finnish literature. Considering the interests of Finnish students
of Estonian Ahlquist presents abundant text samples with Finnish
translations. Being permeated by a national-romantic spirit and
written in a vivid style, Ahlquist's work has influenced several
Estonian literary historians of the turn of the 20th century
(K. A. Hermann, T. Sander, G. Suits, M. Kampmaa).
