Fru Ines

Fru Ines, wife of the Swedish consul, is a member of the wealthy elite; but her privileged position has become a prison, and her attempt to break out by taking a young lover does not bring the sexual fulfilment she craves. Instead she finds herself trapped in a spiral of degradation which brings her down to the level of the most destitute. Fru Ines (1891) is unusual among Amalie Skram's novels in being set in late nineteenth-century Constantinople. It was a city she knew well, having stayed there on her travels with her husband, ship's captain August Muller.