THE COLONEL'S FAMILY
by Fredrika Bremer
The Colonel's Family ($24.95 paperback original; June 10, 1996; 240 pp.; 1-870041-31-3). An early (1831) work of domestic realism by the once-popular novelist and social critic (180165) who was known as ``the Swedish Charlotte Brontâ.'' In fact, her portrayal of a household full of women whose personalities are shaped by the marital conventions of their time suggests a Scandinavian Jane Austen; and in her use of an irreverent female servant as narrator and central consciousness, Bremer infuses this otherwise simplistic melodrama with an intriguingly modern feminist slant.