Laughter is the best medicine

Eduard Vilde’s feuilletons and satire

Vilde had obtained a reputation of a widely known writer already in the 1880s. He wrote for the common people. Most of his readers had but a village-school education and demanded only that the story should be thrilling and have a happy end. There had to be some fun, too. For every holiday newspapers (Postimees, Virulane) published a feullieton by Vilde. Vilde’s jokes had potency, people used to say that they would make even stones laugh. The author began to be known as – Vilde of jokes. These feullietons were easy for Vilde to write, he was generally known as a humorous and witty person. In addition to the feullietons Vilde published small collections of jokes the titles of which speak for themselves: Laughing is Good for You, Tickle your Fancy, The Mysteries of Tallinn.

By and by, some bitter taste could be felt in the jokes and the innocent joker turned into a prolific satirist. Vilde’s attention was caught by the changes that took place in the society with the developing capitalism and the appearance of the bourgeoisie at the end of the nineteenth century. The writer was not pleased with the greed and worship of wealth, characteristic of the rising bourgeoisie.

Obviously following the example of German satirical papers, Vilde dreamed of publishing something of the kind. Although he had been thinking of it already in the late nineteenth century the idea was realised only in 1901 when the newspaper Gazette started publishing a supplement of jokes. When working at the editorial office of the newspaper Bulletin in 1904, Vilde was responsible for this paper’s satire supplement. His wish to publish his own satirical political magazine was realised in Helsinki exile in1906, where he edited The Gallows. The satire in the latter was written in conditions of total freedom for speech, so in Estonia the magazine was banned and its printed copies destroyed. As the subscribers were few and the public distribution impossible, Vilde had to give up his idea. In exile Vilde contributed to the satirical magazines Ray, Leaflet, Tug, Tallinn Echo published in Estonia. The best years for his satirical publications were 1905-1907. Although he wrote a few more satirical pieces later, they were rather rare. Among the latter the Tokerjad or On a New Road (1908) is his greatest achievement. The Hobgoblin, a comedy written in 1913, with its juicy humour and solid satire is the peak of Vilde’s satirical work.