First Semester in Uppsala

Abstract

The four friends again spent a great deal of time together during the summer before beginning their university studies in Uppsala. Gösta visited both Hanstavik and Lännersta. In turn, Johan, Adrian, and Georg visited Vaxholm, which was where Gösta was staying that summer along with his parents and siblings. They were all glad to be done with secondary school, which they now labeled a “refuge for pedantry and pettiness.” In Vaxholm the Leffler family had rented a summer house in a beautiful setting. But their stay was marred by the fact that Mrs. Leffler, Gustava, was suffering from a lung ailment and required constant care. Gösta had made plans to go with Adrian on a walking tour in the Dalarna district or in Värmland, but he canceled the trip because his mother wanted to have all of her children close at hand. By early September, however, she was well enough to accompany her eldest son to Uppsala, and she stayed several days in order to get him settled in his new life as a university student. They traveled from Stockholm on a passenger boat that made daily crossings between the two cities. Johan was also on board. Gösta and Johan had rented rooms in the same building, at Övre Slottsgatan 15, right near the university library, known as Carolina rediviva.