Eduard Vilde

About

Eduard Vilde founded modern Estonian critical realism and wrote Pisuhänd and Mahtra sõda. His house museum stands at Roheline aas 3 in Kadriorg.

Story highlights

• Founded Estonian critical realism with novels that still sit on school shelves.
• Pisuhänd remains the classic comedy about an awkward houseguest.
• Represented young Estonia as envoy in Berlin in the 1920s.
• His Kadriorg house museum keeps the feel of a writer's cafe salon.

Pronunciation

/eduɑrd vilde/

EH-doo-ard VIL-deh

Cultural flavour

• Pisuhänd (1913) is still required reading - a sharp comedy about a freeloading relative
• Mahtra sõda retells the 1858 peasant uprising with documentary grit
• first Estonian professional novelist who lived from his pen and journalism
• served as Estonia's envoy to Berlin in the 1920s after independence
• house museum at Roheline aas 3, Kadriorg - cafe tables still feel like his salon
• loved Tallinn cafe culture of the 1900s and teased society pages with a wicked grin
• wrote in a clear spoken style that learners can steal for everyday irony