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Tattoo Girls Wallpaper Biography
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – literally, men who hate women) is a crime novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book of the Millennium series trilogy, which, when published posthumously in 2005, became a best-seller in Europe and the United States.
When he was 15, Larsson stood by as three youths gang-raped an acquaintance of his named Lisbeth: he did nothing to help her. Days later, wracked with guilt, he begged her forgiveness—she angrily refused. The incident haunted him for years afterward, and in part inspired him to create a character named Lisbeth who was also a rape survivor.
With the exception of the fictional Hedestad, the novel takes place in real Swedish towns. The Millennium magazine featured in the books has characteristics similar to that of Larsson's magazine, Expo, which also had financial difficulties.
Plot
In December 2002, Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. He is sentenced to three months (deferred) in prison, and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs. Soon afterwards, he is invited to meet Henrik Vanger, the retired CEO of the Vanger Corporation, unaware that Vanger has checked into his personal and professional history; the investigation of Blomkvist's circumstances has been carried out by Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant, but deeply troubled, young woman who works as a surveillance agent with Milton Security; even Salander's boss, Armansky, has doubts about her but is afraid to enquire too closely into her background.
Vanger promises Blomkvist considerable financial reward and solid evidence against Wennerström, ostensibly for writing the Vanger family history, but really for discovering what happened to Harriet. Vanger believes that his grand-niece Harriet, who disappeared 36 years earlier, was murdered by a member of the family. He has been trying to find out what happened to her ever since. Harriet disappeared during a family gathering at the Vanger estate on Hedeby Island, when the island was temporarily cut off from the mainland by a traffic accident on the bridge. Blomkvist moves to the island and begins his research into the history of the Vanger family and Harriet's disappearance.
Shortly after Blomkvist arrives, he begins an affair with Cecilia Vanger, a cousin of Harriet's, now a head teacher and a few years Blomkvist's senior. He has lost touch with his lover and business partner Erika Berger, herself a married woman and editor of Millennium, who is angry with him for accepting Vanger's offer and leaving her to run the magazine in Stockholm. Eventually it is Vanger himself who persuades Berger to come and visit, and a deal is made to enable the magazine to benefit from an association with the Vanger Corporation.
Lisbeth Salander, who is considered asocial, was ruled legally incompetent as a child, and is under the care of a legal guardian. When her guardian, Holger Palmgren, suffers a stroke, he is replaced by lawyer Nils Bjurman, who uses his position to sexually abuse her. After using a hidden camera to record Bjurman raping her, Salander takes her revenge, torturing him and threatening to ruin him unless he gives her full control of her life and finances.
While searching through the evidence, Blomkvist decides that he needs a research assistant, and Vanger's lawyer suggests Salander. When he sees the report she prepared for Vanger, Blomkvist realises that Salander has hacked into his computer. He confronts her, but shows none of the anger she expects. Salander agrees to assist in the investigation, and a sexual relationship quickly develops, but Salander keeps Blomkvist at a distance emotionally.
Blomkvist and Salander begin to realise that they are on the trail of a serial killer, with suspicion falling on Harriet's uncle, Harald Vanger, the only living family member sufficiently old to have been responsible for the killings. An attack on Blomkvist confirms their suspicions that they are on the right track. When looking through old photographs, Blomkvist realises that they contain a clue to the murderer's identity. When he becomes suspicious of Harriet's brother, Martin Vanger, and goes to his house, Martin takes him prisoner. Martin reveals that the murders were started by his father who later encouraged his teenage son to participate. Martin admits to murdering dozens of women, but denies killing his sister. Martin tries to murder Blomkvist, who is saved just in time by Salander. Trying to escape, Martin drives his car head-on into a truck on the wrong side of the road and is burnt to death.
By following a trail that leads to Cecilia's sister Anita, who now lives in London, Blomkvist and Salander learn not only that Harriet is still alive, but also that she is in Australia. Blomkvist flies there to look for her. He learns the truth about Harriet's disappearance: that her father and her brother had repeatedly raped her; that she killed her father by drowning; that her cousin Anita had smuggled her out of Sweden. Blomkvist persuades her to return to Sweden, where she reunites with her great-uncle, who makes plans for her to take the position of CEO of the Vanger Corporation. Blomkvist accompanies Lisbeth at the funeral of her mother, who has just died.
Blomkvist is furious when he learns that the evidence against Wennerström that Vanger promised him is useless. However Salander has already hacked Wennerström's computer and has discovered that his crimes go far beyond what Blomkvist documented. Using her evidence, Blomkvist prints an exposé and book which ruins Wennerström and catapults Millennium to national prominence. Salander, using her hacking skills, succeeds in stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars from Wennerström's secret bank account. Blomkvist and Salander spend Christmas together in his holiday retreat and their sexual relationship continues. At Christmas, she goes to Blomkvist's home, intending to declare her love for him but backs away when she sees him with his long-time lover Erika Berger.
As a postscript, Salander continues to monitor Wennerström and after six months, anonymously informs a lawyer in Miami of his whereabouts. He is found in Marbella, dead, shot three times in the head.
Characters
Mikael Blomkvist – Journalist, publisher and part-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium
Lisbeth Salander – Freelance surveillance agent and researcher, specialising in investigating people on behalf of Milton Security
Henrik Vanger – Retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation
Harriet Vanger – Henrik's great-niece
Martin Vanger – Brother of Harriet and CEO of the Vanger Corporation
Gottfried Vanger – Martin and Harriet's deceased father
Isabella Vanger – Gottfried Vanger's wife and Martin and Harriet's mother
Cecilia Vanger – Daughter of Harald Vanger and one of Henrik's nieces
Anita Vanger – Cecilia's sister and one of Harriet's second cousins
Birger Vanger – Cecilia and Anita's brother
Hans-Erik Wennerström – Corrupt billionaire financier
Robert Lindberg – Banker and Blomkvist's provider of background to libellous feature
William Borg – Blomkvist's nemesis
Monica Abrahamsson – Blomkvist's wife whom he married in 1986 and divorced in 1991
Pernilla Abrahamsson – Their daughter who was born in 1986
Holger Palmgren – Salander's lawyer and legal guardian
Nils Bjurman – Salander's legal guardian and lawyer after Palmgren
Erika Berger – Editor-in-chief/majority owner of Millennium monthly magazine, and Blomkvist's long-standing lover
Dirch Frode – Former lawyer for Vanger Corporation, now lawyer with one client: Henrik Vanger
Dragan Armansky – CEO and COO of Milton Security
Plague – Computer hacker/genius
Christer Malm – Director, art designer and part-owner of Millennium
Janne Dahlman – Managing editor of Millennium
Gustaf Morell – Retired Detective Superintendent
Anna Nygren – Henrik Vanger's house keeper
Gunnar Nilsson – Henrik's caretaker
Major themes
Larsson makes several literary references to the genre's classic forerunners, and comments on contemporary Swedish society. Reviewer Robert Dessaix writes that "His favourite targets are violence against women, the incompetence and cowardice of investigative journalists, the moral bankruptcy of big capital and the virulent strain of Nazism still festering away ... in Swedish society. "]
Larsson further enters the debate as to how responsible criminals are for their crimes and how much is blamed on upbringing or society. Salander has a strong will and assumes that everyone else does, too. She is portrayed as having suffered every kind of abuse in her young life, including an unjustly ordered commitment to a psychiatric clinic and subsequent instances of sexual assault suffered at the hands of her court-appointed guardian.
Addendum
Larsson writes within the novel, in Chapter 12, "It's actually a fascinating case. What I believe is known as a locked room mystery, on an island. And nothing in the investigation seems to follow normal logic. Every question remains unanswered, every clue leads to a dead end. "
He supplies a family tree explaining the relationships of five generations of the Vanger family.
Reception and awards
The novel was released to great acclaim in Sweden and later, on its publication in many other European countries. In the original language, it won Sweden's Glass Key Award in 2006 for best crime novel of the year. It also won the 2008 Boeke Prize, and in 2009 the Galaxy British Book Awards for Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, and the prestigious Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
Larsson was posthumously awarded the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for International Author of the Year in 2008.
The novel received mixed reviews from American critics. In a review for The New York Times upon the book's September 2008 publication in the United States, Alex Berenson wrote, "The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature"; while it "opens with an intriguing mystery" and the "middle section of Girl is a treat, the rest of the novel doesn't quite measure up. The book's original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women, a label that just about captures the subtlety of the novel's sexual politics. " The Los Angeles Times said "the book takes off, in the fourth chapter: From there, it becomes classic parlor crime fiction with many modern twists....The writing is not beautiful, clipped at times (though that could be the translation by Reg Keeland) and with a few too many falsely dramatic endings to sections or chapters. But it is a compelling, well-woven tale that succeeds in transporting the reader to rural Sweden for a good crime story. " Several months later, Matt Selman said the book "rings false with piles of easy super-victories and far-fetched one-in-a-million clue-findings. "
As of 3 June 2011, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had sold over 3.4 million copies in hardcover or ebook formats, and 15 million copies altogether, in the United States.
Film adaptations
Main articles: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009 film) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film)
The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird created film versions of the Millennium Trilogy, all released in 2009, beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev. The protagonists were played by Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.
A Hollywood adaptation of the book, directed by David Fincher, was released in December 2011. The main characters were portrayed by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.
Parodies
The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo (2010) – Adam Roberts
The Girl with the Sturgeon Tattoo – Lars Arffssen
The Girl who Fixed the Umlaut – Nora Ephron
Tattoo Girls Wallpaper Biography
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – literally, men who hate women) is a crime novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book of the Millennium series trilogy, which, when published posthumously in 2005, became a best-seller in Europe and the United States.
When he was 15, Larsson stood by as three youths gang-raped an acquaintance of his named Lisbeth: he did nothing to help her. Days later, wracked with guilt, he begged her forgiveness—she angrily refused. The incident haunted him for years afterward, and in part inspired him to create a character named Lisbeth who was also a rape survivor.
With the exception of the fictional Hedestad, the novel takes place in real Swedish towns. The Millennium magazine featured in the books has characteristics similar to that of Larsson's magazine, Expo, which also had financial difficulties.
Plot
In December 2002, Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. He is sentenced to three months (deferred) in prison, and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs. Soon afterwards, he is invited to meet Henrik Vanger, the retired CEO of the Vanger Corporation, unaware that Vanger has checked into his personal and professional history; the investigation of Blomkvist's circumstances has been carried out by Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant, but deeply troubled, young woman who works as a surveillance agent with Milton Security; even Salander's boss, Armansky, has doubts about her but is afraid to enquire too closely into her background.
Vanger promises Blomkvist considerable financial reward and solid evidence against Wennerström, ostensibly for writing the Vanger family history, but really for discovering what happened to Harriet. Vanger believes that his grand-niece Harriet, who disappeared 36 years earlier, was murdered by a member of the family. He has been trying to find out what happened to her ever since. Harriet disappeared during a family gathering at the Vanger estate on Hedeby Island, when the island was temporarily cut off from the mainland by a traffic accident on the bridge. Blomkvist moves to the island and begins his research into the history of the Vanger family and Harriet's disappearance.
Shortly after Blomkvist arrives, he begins an affair with Cecilia Vanger, a cousin of Harriet's, now a head teacher and a few years Blomkvist's senior. He has lost touch with his lover and business partner Erika Berger, herself a married woman and editor of Millennium, who is angry with him for accepting Vanger's offer and leaving her to run the magazine in Stockholm. Eventually it is Vanger himself who persuades Berger to come and visit, and a deal is made to enable the magazine to benefit from an association with the Vanger Corporation.
Lisbeth Salander, who is considered asocial, was ruled legally incompetent as a child, and is under the care of a legal guardian. When her guardian, Holger Palmgren, suffers a stroke, he is replaced by lawyer Nils Bjurman, who uses his position to sexually abuse her. After using a hidden camera to record Bjurman raping her, Salander takes her revenge, torturing him and threatening to ruin him unless he gives her full control of her life and finances.
While searching through the evidence, Blomkvist decides that he needs a research assistant, and Vanger's lawyer suggests Salander. When he sees the report she prepared for Vanger, Blomkvist realises that Salander has hacked into his computer. He confronts her, but shows none of the anger she expects. Salander agrees to assist in the investigation, and a sexual relationship quickly develops, but Salander keeps Blomkvist at a distance emotionally.
Blomkvist and Salander begin to realise that they are on the trail of a serial killer, with suspicion falling on Harriet's uncle, Harald Vanger, the only living family member sufficiently old to have been responsible for the killings. An attack on Blomkvist confirms their suspicions that they are on the right track. When looking through old photographs, Blomkvist realises that they contain a clue to the murderer's identity. When he becomes suspicious of Harriet's brother, Martin Vanger, and goes to his house, Martin takes him prisoner. Martin reveals that the murders were started by his father who later encouraged his teenage son to participate. Martin admits to murdering dozens of women, but denies killing his sister. Martin tries to murder Blomkvist, who is saved just in time by Salander. Trying to escape, Martin drives his car head-on into a truck on the wrong side of the road and is burnt to death.
By following a trail that leads to Cecilia's sister Anita, who now lives in London, Blomkvist and Salander learn not only that Harriet is still alive, but also that she is in Australia. Blomkvist flies there to look for her. He learns the truth about Harriet's disappearance: that her father and her brother had repeatedly raped her; that she killed her father by drowning; that her cousin Anita had smuggled her out of Sweden. Blomkvist persuades her to return to Sweden, where she reunites with her great-uncle, who makes plans for her to take the position of CEO of the Vanger Corporation. Blomkvist accompanies Lisbeth at the funeral of her mother, who has just died.
Blomkvist is furious when he learns that the evidence against Wennerström that Vanger promised him is useless. However Salander has already hacked Wennerström's computer and has discovered that his crimes go far beyond what Blomkvist documented. Using her evidence, Blomkvist prints an exposé and book which ruins Wennerström and catapults Millennium to national prominence. Salander, using her hacking skills, succeeds in stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars from Wennerström's secret bank account. Blomkvist and Salander spend Christmas together in his holiday retreat and their sexual relationship continues. At Christmas, she goes to Blomkvist's home, intending to declare her love for him but backs away when she sees him with his long-time lover Erika Berger.
As a postscript, Salander continues to monitor Wennerström and after six months, anonymously informs a lawyer in Miami of his whereabouts. He is found in Marbella, dead, shot three times in the head.
Characters
Mikael Blomkvist – Journalist, publisher and part-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium
Lisbeth Salander – Freelance surveillance agent and researcher, specialising in investigating people on behalf of Milton Security
Henrik Vanger – Retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation
Harriet Vanger – Henrik's great-niece
Martin Vanger – Brother of Harriet and CEO of the Vanger Corporation
Gottfried Vanger – Martin and Harriet's deceased father
Isabella Vanger – Gottfried Vanger's wife and Martin and Harriet's mother
Cecilia Vanger – Daughter of Harald Vanger and one of Henrik's nieces
Anita Vanger – Cecilia's sister and one of Harriet's second cousins
Birger Vanger – Cecilia and Anita's brother
Hans-Erik Wennerström – Corrupt billionaire financier
Robert Lindberg – Banker and Blomkvist's provider of background to libellous feature
William Borg – Blomkvist's nemesis
Monica Abrahamsson – Blomkvist's wife whom he married in 1986 and divorced in 1991
Pernilla Abrahamsson – Their daughter who was born in 1986
Holger Palmgren – Salander's lawyer and legal guardian
Nils Bjurman – Salander's legal guardian and lawyer after Palmgren
Erika Berger – Editor-in-chief/majority owner of Millennium monthly magazine, and Blomkvist's long-standing lover
Dirch Frode – Former lawyer for Vanger Corporation, now lawyer with one client: Henrik Vanger
Dragan Armansky – CEO and COO of Milton Security
Plague – Computer hacker/genius
Christer Malm – Director, art designer and part-owner of Millennium
Janne Dahlman – Managing editor of Millennium
Gustaf Morell – Retired Detective Superintendent
Anna Nygren – Henrik Vanger's house keeper
Gunnar Nilsson – Henrik's caretaker
Major themes
Larsson makes several literary references to the genre's classic forerunners, and comments on contemporary Swedish society. Reviewer Robert Dessaix writes that "His favourite targets are violence against women, the incompetence and cowardice of investigative journalists, the moral bankruptcy of big capital and the virulent strain of Nazism still festering away ... in Swedish society. "]
Larsson further enters the debate as to how responsible criminals are for their crimes and how much is blamed on upbringing or society. Salander has a strong will and assumes that everyone else does, too. She is portrayed as having suffered every kind of abuse in her young life, including an unjustly ordered commitment to a psychiatric clinic and subsequent instances of sexual assault suffered at the hands of her court-appointed guardian.
Addendum
Larsson writes within the novel, in Chapter 12, "It's actually a fascinating case. What I believe is known as a locked room mystery, on an island. And nothing in the investigation seems to follow normal logic. Every question remains unanswered, every clue leads to a dead end. "
He supplies a family tree explaining the relationships of five generations of the Vanger family.
Reception and awards
The novel was released to great acclaim in Sweden and later, on its publication in many other European countries. In the original language, it won Sweden's Glass Key Award in 2006 for best crime novel of the year. It also won the 2008 Boeke Prize, and in 2009 the Galaxy British Book Awards for Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, and the prestigious Anthony Award for Best First Novel.
Larsson was posthumously awarded the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for International Author of the Year in 2008.
The novel received mixed reviews from American critics. In a review for The New York Times upon the book's September 2008 publication in the United States, Alex Berenson wrote, "The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature"; while it "opens with an intriguing mystery" and the "middle section of Girl is a treat, the rest of the novel doesn't quite measure up. The book's original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women, a label that just about captures the subtlety of the novel's sexual politics. " The Los Angeles Times said "the book takes off, in the fourth chapter: From there, it becomes classic parlor crime fiction with many modern twists....The writing is not beautiful, clipped at times (though that could be the translation by Reg Keeland) and with a few too many falsely dramatic endings to sections or chapters. But it is a compelling, well-woven tale that succeeds in transporting the reader to rural Sweden for a good crime story. " Several months later, Matt Selman said the book "rings false with piles of easy super-victories and far-fetched one-in-a-million clue-findings. "
As of 3 June 2011, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had sold over 3.4 million copies in hardcover or ebook formats, and 15 million copies altogether, in the United States.
Film adaptations
Main articles: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009 film) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film)
The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird created film versions of the Millennium Trilogy, all released in 2009, beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev. The protagonists were played by Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace.
A Hollywood adaptation of the book, directed by David Fincher, was released in December 2011. The main characters were portrayed by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.
Parodies
The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo (2010) – Adam Roberts
The Girl with the Sturgeon Tattoo – Lars Arffssen
The Girl who Fixed the Umlaut – Nora Ephron
Tattoo Girls Wallpaper
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