Collet, Jacobine Camilla

Born Jan. 23, 1813, in Kristiansand; died Mar. 6, 1895, in Kristiania. Norwegian author.

Collet began her literary career in the early 1840’s. Her novel The Governor’s Daughters (1854–55, published anonymously), in which the author denounced bourgeois marriage and mores and espoused women’s liberation, was one of the first social novels in Norwegian literature. The theme was also touched on in Last Pages (1868–73), From the Camp of the Mute (1877), and Against the Current (1879–85). Collet’s autobiographical book In the Long Nights (1863) contains recollections of several Norwegian authors, including her brother H. Wergeland. Her literary style is distinguished by clarity and elegance.