_Sir Bengt's Wife_ was published in 1882, _The Journey of Lucky Peter_ in 1883. During the years 1880-82 a work entitled _Old Stockholm_[5] appeared, with Strindberg and Claes Lundin as joint authors. It is a popular and comprehensive account of past customs, institutions and pleasures of the citizens of the capital of Sweden, profusely illustrated. Strindberg had collected the material at the Royal Library, and planned to write the whole work. His health broke down through overwork, and he found it necessary to engage a collaborator. He managed, however, to write entertainingly on guilds and orders, legends and superstitions, street music and amusements, celebration of Christmas and Easter, slang, fauna and flora of the city of his birth. _The Red Room_ had already shown Strindberg's keen observation of the character and peculiarities of Stockholm life; the _genius loci_ had in him a faithful, though not always flattering, _raconteur_. In _Old Stockholm_ the comprehensiveness of his knowledge of the history of the Swedish capital became apparent. The solidity of his antiquarian and historical research brought him an offer to write a popular history of Swedish culture which he accepted, on condition that the independence of his historical sense should not be suppressed. Having prepared his material he was lost in philosophical speculation over the absence of an intelligent connection between cause and effect. "Was not history a capricious muddle, a walk in a circle? Had not civilisations risen and perished, social systems appeared and disappeared, religions changed and men remained unwise and unhappy?" He succeeded in contracting his point of view, and wrote his history with the intention of counteracting the prevalent method of viewing historical events through the medium of privileged personages. Others had overrated the personal factor. Strindberg admits that he under-rated it. _The Swedish People_ met with angry criticism and resentment of the sceptical manner in which time-worn and honoured tenets were treated. The reception of _The Swedish People_ aroused the powers of satire which had been lulled to sleep during a temporary spell of optimism. The warm and sunny atmosphere, in which the warrior had rested, gave place to storm and thunder, and Strindberg gathered his force for a fresh attack on Society. This time he disdained the form of the novel which, though thin and undeveloped, had yet made it possible for some of the parties arraigned to dismiss _The Red Room_ as a piece of clever but fantastic fiction.