was first published in 1835 and quickly became a symbol of Finnish nationalism. Finland was then politically controlled by Russia and had previously been part of Sweden. The Kalevala was therefore an important part of early Finnish identity. Beside the collection of lyric poems known as the Kanteletar it has been and still is a major influence on art and music, as in the case of Jean Sibelius. It is a common misconception that Lönnrot merely "collected" pre-existing poetry. It is now widely accepted that the Kalevala represents an amalgam of loosely connected source materials, freely altered by Lönnrot to present the appearance of a unified whole. The first novel published in Finnish was Seven Brothers (1870) by Aleksis Kivi (1834–1872), still generally considered to be one of the greatest of all works of Finnish literature. As in Europe and the United States, the popularity of the novel in Finland is connected to industrialisation, as are many of the first Finnish novels that deal with the life of the modern middle-class or the clash of the traditional peasants with developments such as the railway. Specifically, the theme of Seven Brothers concerns uneducated residents of the countryside and the struggle to survive under the new authority of the developing urban civilisation - a common theme in Finnish novels. Among Finland's prominent female writers in the nineteenth century was Minna Canth (1844–1897), best known for her plays (The Worker's Wife) and Anna Liisa. Twentieth century At the end of the Grand Duchy of Finland, literature consisted largely of romance and drama, such as novel The Song of the Blood-Red Flower (1905) by Johannes Linnankoski (1869–1913), but then Finland gained its independence in 1917 and soon after a civil war broke out. As with other civil wars it was to be depicted many times in literature, as in (1919) by Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964). Sillanpää was a strong leader of literature in the 1930s in Finland and was the first Finnish Nobel Prize winner. The theme was taken up by Väinö Linna (1920–1992), already phenomenally successful because of his novel The Unknown Soldier (1954). In this and other cases the very strangeness of the Finnish environment and mentality have been major obstacles to international renown. Other works known worldwide include Michael the Finn and The Sultan's Renegade (known in the US as The Adventurer and The Wanderer respectively) by Mika Waltari (1908–1979). The