The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a psychological thriller novel by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in 2005, translated into English in 2008, and became an international bestseller.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book of the Millennium series. Originally a trilogy by Larsson, the series has since been expanded, as the publishers with the rights have contracted with other authors.

Background

Larsson spoke of an incident which he said occurred when he was 15: he stood by as three men gang raped an acquaintance of his named Lisbeth. Days later, wracked with guilt for having done nothing to help her, he begged her forgiveness—which she refused to grant. The incident, he said, haunted him for years afterward and in part inspired him to create a character named Lisbeth who was also a rape victim. The veracity of this story has been questioned since Larsson's death, after a colleague from Expo magazine reported to Rolling Stone that Larsson had told him he had heard the story secondhand and retold it as his own. The murder of Catrine da Costa was also an inspiration when he wrote the book.
With the exception of the fictional Hedestad, the novel takes place in actual Swedish towns. The magazine Millennium in the books has characteristics similar to that of Larsson's magazine, Expo, such as its leftist socio-political leanings, its exposés on Swedish Nazism and financial corruption and its financial difficulties.
Both Larsson's longtime partner Eva Gabrielsson and English translator Steven T. Murray have said that Christopher MacLehose "needlessly prettified" the English translation; as such, Murray requested he be credited under the pseudonym "Reg Keeland". The English release also changed the title, even though Larsson specifically refused to allow the Swedish publisher to do so, and the size of Salander's dragon tattoo; from a large piece covering her entire back, to a small shoulder tattoo.

Plot

Middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who publishes the magazine Millennium in Stockholm, has lost a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors, despite strong objections from Erika Berger, Blomkvist's longtime friend, occasional lover, and business partner. At the same time, he is offered an unlikely freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the elderly former CEO of Vanger Enterprises. Blomkvist accepts the assignment, unaware that Vanger commissioned gifted private investigator Lisbeth Salander to comprehensively investigate Blomkvist's personal and professional history.
Blomkvist visits Vanger at his estate on the tiny island of Hedeby, several hours from Stockholm. The old man convinces Blomkvist to do the assignment, by promising not only financial reward but also solid evidence that Wennerström is truly the scoundrel Blomkvist suspects him to be. On this basis, Blomkvist agrees to spend a year writing the Vanger family history as a cover for the real assignment: solving the "cold case" of the disappearance of Vanger's great niece Harriet some 40 years earlier. Vanger expresses his suspicion that Harriet was murdered by a member of the vast Vanger family, many of whom were present in Hedeby on the day of her disappearance. Each year on his birthday Harriet gave Henrik a present of pressed flowers. Since her murder, each year on his birthday, the murderer torments him with a present of pressed flowers, explains Vanger.
Blomkvist begins to analyze the volumes of information that Vanger has obsessively compiled over 40 years about the circumstances of Harriet's disappearance. Hedeby is home to several generations of Vangers, all part-owners in Vanger Enterprises. Under the pretext of researching the family history, and because the island is small, Blomkvist soon becomes acquainted with the members of the extended family who are variously mad, uninterested, concerned, hostile, or aloof.
Blomkvist immerses himself in the case. Eventually Lisbeth Salander is brought in, now to assist him with research by using her skills as a computer hacker. Ultimately the two discover that Harriet's brother Martin, now CEO of Vanger Industries, has been systematically abusing and killing women for years. Moreover, the behavior was indoctrinated in him by his late father Gottfried who sexually abused Martin and Harriet as well. Blomkvist tries to confront Martin, but is captured and taken to a torture chamber hidden in Martin's house. Martin reveals that he is not responsible for Harriet's disappearance. Moments before Martin can kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth bursts in and frees him. Martin escapes but commits suicide by crashing his car into a truck on the highway.
Blomkvist and Lisbeth realize that Harriet was not murdered, but ran away to escape from her sadistic brother. They track her in Australia where she runs a sheep farming company. Confronted, she confirms their account of the case, and reveals that she was responsible for the presumed accidental death of her father. She returns to Sweden where she is happily reunited with Vanger and begins to take a leading role in the newly leaderless family company.
The evidence about Wennerström, which Vanger promised, turns out to be weak, and the promises turn out to have been mostly a lure for Blomkvist. But Lisbeth breaks into Wennerström's computer and discovers that his crimes go beyond what Blomkvist had published. Using this evidence, Blomkvist publishes an article and a book which destroy Wennerström and raise Blomkvist and Millennium to national prominence.

Characters

  • Mikael Blomkvistjournalist, publisher and part-owner of the monthly political magazine, Millennium
  • Lisbeth Salanderfreelance surveillance agent and researcher specializing in investigating people on behalf of Milton Security
  • Erika Bergereditor-in-chief/majority owner of Millennium and Blomkvist's long-standing lover
  • Henrik Vangerretired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation
  • Harriet VangerHenrik's grandniece who disappeared without trace in 1966
  • Martin VangerHarriet's brother and CEO of Vanger Corporation
  • Gottfried VangerHenrik's nephew, and Martin and Harriet's deceased father
  • Isabella VangerGottfried Vanger's widow, and Martin and Harriet's mother
  • Cecilia Vangerdaughter of Harald Vanger and one of Henrik's nieces
  • Anita Vangerdaughter of Harald Vanger and one of Henrik's nieces, currently living in London
  • Birger VangerHarald Vanger' son; one of Henrik's nephews
  • Harald VangerHenrik's elder brother, a member of the Swedish Nazi Party
  • Hans-Erik Wennerströmcorrupt billionaire financier
  • Robert Lindberga banker, Blomkvist's source for the libelous story on Wennerström
  • William Borga former journalist and Blomkvist's nemesis
  • Monica AbrahamssonBlomkvist's ex-wife whom he married in 1986 and divorced in 1991
  • Pernilla Abrahamssontheir daughter who was born in 1986
  • Greger BeckmanErika Berger's husband
  • Holger PalmgrenSalander's legal guardian and lawyer who becomes disabled by a stroke
  • Nils BjurmanSalander's legal guardian and lawyer after Palmgren
  • Dirch Frodeformer lawyer for Vanger Corporation, now a lawyer with only one client: Henrik Vanger
  • Dragan ArmanskijCEO and COO of Milton Security, Lisbeth's employer
  • Plaguecomputer hacker/genius
  • EvaMartin Vanger's girlfriend
  • Christer Malmdirector, art designer and part-owner of Millennium
  • Janne Dahlmanmanaging editor of Millennium
  • Gustaf Morellretired Detective Superintendent who investigated Harriet's disappearance
  • Anna NygrenHenrik Vanger's housekeeper
  • Gunnar Nilssoncaretaker of Henrik Vanger's domain in Hedeby

    Major themes

Larsson refers to several classic forerunners in the same genre and comments on contemporary Swedish society. Reviewer Robert Dessaix writes, "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... in Swedish society." Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm and Anna Westerstahl Stenport write that the novel "reflects—implicitly and explicitly—gaps between rhetoric and practice in Swedish policy and public discourse about complex relations between welfare state retrenchment, neoliberal corporate and economic practices, and politicised gender construction. According to one article, the novel endorses a pragmatic acceptance of a neoliberal world order that is delocalized, dehumanized and misogynistic."
Alm and Stenport add, "What most international reviewers overlook is that the financial and moral corruptibility at the heart of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is so profound as to indict most attributes associated with contemporary Sweden as democratic and gender-equal. American critic Maureen Corrigan called it an "unflinching... commonsense feminist social commentary".
Larsson further enters the debate as to how responsible criminals are for their crimes, and how much is blamed on upbringing or society. For instance, 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 unnecessary commitment to a psychiatric clinic and subsequent instances of sexual assault suffered at the hands of her court-appointed guardian.
Maria de Lurdes Sampaio, in the journal Cross-Cultural Communication, asserts that, "Blomkvist, a modern Theseus, leads us to the labyrinth of the globalized world, while the series' protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, modeled on the Amazon, is an example of the empowerment of women in crime fiction by playing the role of the 'tough guy' detective, while also personifying the popular roles of the victim, the outcast and the avenger." In this context, she discusses "Dialogues with Greek tragedy... namely Salander's struggles with strong father figures." Sampaio also argues,