Det Går an

During a steamboat trip between Stockholm and Lidk ping, a sergeant named Albert falls in love with the glazier's daughter Sara Videbeck. But Sara insists that they live in an egalitarian marriage without a formal marriage ceremony and without shared property (today known as living apart together). Sara asks at the end of the book: G r allt detta an, Albert? (Is all this acceptable, Albert?) The answer is: Det g r an (It is acceptable). The novel is primarily an attack on lifelong marriage as an institution and the inability of women to become financially independent. The book's social tendency aroused lively debate and "det-g r-an literature" became a concept. One consequence however was that Almqvist was forced out of his post as rector at the New Elementary School, Stockholm.