Prologue . . 9 

1. Introduction . . 10
   An Eternal Cinderella? . . 10 
   Selected Material . . 12 
   Earlier Writings on Helsinki in Finnish Literature . . 13 
   Real and Imagined Cities . . 14 
   Outline . . 15 

2. Ways of Writing and Reading the City . . 17 
   Perspectives on the City in Literature . . 17 
     Dichotomies . . 18 
     Ambiguity . . 19 
   Metaphorizations of the City . . 20 
   Towards a Poetics of Movement . . 23 
     Trajectories through Space and Narrative . . 25 
     Penalization and the Flaneur . . 26 
     Walking as Enunciation . . 27 

3. The Shock of Arrival. Expectations and First Impressions of the City . . 30 
   Arrival in the City in Juhani Aho's Helsinkiin (1889) . . 31 
   Mobility and the Degenerating City . . 34 
   The Young Man/Woman from the Province . . 38 
   Expectations and First Experiences of Helsinki . . 40 
     Competing Visions . . 40 
     Restlessness and Rootlessness . . 42 
     An Experience of Shock: Conclusion . . 49 
   Helsinki 1890-1918: A Short History . . 53 

4. The Fateful Esplanade. The Stratification of Public Space . . 56 
   A Shorthand Expression for the City . . 57 
   A Male Bourgeois Ritual . . 60 
   The Gaze and the Right to the City in Eino Leino's Jaana Ronty (1907) . . 65 
     Jaana Ronty . . 66 
     Public Space - Public Women? . . 67 
   The Experience of Helsinki's Public Space under the Aegis of the "Frost Years" . . 70 
     The Esplanade as Agent Road . . 73 
   Uneasy Encounters . . 74 
   Traces of Flanerie Beyond the Esplanade . . 76 

5. Experiences of a Metropolis in Motion. Changing and Disappearing Helsinki . . 81 
   A Panoramic View of the City . . 82 
   Helsinki in Arvid Jarnefelt's Venehojalaiset (1909) . . 86 
     A Novel about the Land Question . . 87 
     City of Sin: the Brothel Scene . . 88 
     Tentacular City . . 91 
   Helsinki in Transformation . . 92 
   Intimations of Apocalypse . . 96 
     Nocturnal Outing to the Fortress . . 97 
     "All culture is swaying, all forms are inverted" . . 100 
     The Whore of Babylon . . 106 
   Towards a Sense of Belonging . . 107 
     A Fully-fledged Helsinki Novel . . 111 
   Helsinki 1917-1940: A Short History . . 115 

6. Aestheticizing the City. The Internalization of a New Helsinki . . 117 
   The Internalized Urban Experience in Mika Waltari's Suuri illusioni (1928) . . 118 
   City Archaeologies . . 124 
     Thoughts Breaking off in Mid-Sentence . . 129 
   The Nocturnal Car Drive . . 131 
   Aestheticizing "New Helsinki" and Helvi Hamalainen's Saadyllinen murhenaytelma (1941) . . 136 
     Helsinki as Urban Pastoral . . 142 
     Conclusion . . 145 

7. Towards the Margins. Cumbersome Movement through the Urban Fringes . . 147 
   Krokelby in Joel Lehtoneris Rakastunut rampa (1922) . . 148 
     A Deformed Landscape . . 152 
     From Carnivalesque to Grotesque Landscape . . 153 
     "Like meat on a grill" . . 155 
     The Slaughterhouse . . 159 
   Mapping a Socially Divided City: Place Names . . 160 
   The Loss of the Centre . . 166 
     The Shop Window and the City as a "Bordello of Consumption" . . 167 
     The Centrifugal City . . 168 
   Hampered Mobility . . 171 
     A Divided City: Class and Gender . . 173 
   A Home in the Margins? . . 176 

Conclusion . . 179 

Notes . . 183 
References . . 216 
  Primary Sources . . 216 
  Secondary Sources . . 219 
Abstract . . 238 
Index . . 239