The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women") is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his Millennium Trilogy. At his death in November 2004, Larsson left three unpublished novels that made up the trilogy. It became a posthumous best-seller in several European countries as well as in the United States.[1] Larsson, who was disgusted by sexual violence, witnessed the gang rape of a young girl when he was 15. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, herself a rape victim, which inspired the theme of sexual violence against women in his books.[2]
Introduction
This novel supplies a genealogical table for keeping track of the numerous members of the five generation-old Vanger family who are under investigation. Robert Dessaix of the Sydney Morning Herald writes:
An epic tale of serial murder and corporate trickery spanning several continents, the novel takes place in complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a wealthy Swedish industrial family. Through its main character, it also references classic forebears of the crime thriller genre while its style mixes aspects of the sub-genres. There are references to Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as Sue Grafton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Val McDermid, Elizabeth George, Sara Paretsky, and several other key authors of detective novels. A journalist and magazine editor in Stockholm until his death, Larsson reveals a knowledge and enjoyment of both English and American crime fiction. He declared that he wrote his opus for his own pleasure in the evenings after work.[1]
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.[3]
Plot summary
Middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who publishes the political 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. With few other options, Blomkvist accepts the assignment — unaware that Vanger commissioned a comprehensive investigation into Blomkvist's personal and professional history, carried out by gifted private investigator Lisbeth Salander.
Blomkvist visits Vanger at his estate on the tiny island of Hedeby, several hours from Stockholm. The old man draws Blomkvist in by promising not only financial reward for the assignment, 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 admits he is obsessed with finding out the truth of what happened to Harriet, and 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. On his birthday every year since Harriet's murder, Vanger explains, the murderer torments him with a present of pressed flowers.
Blomkvist uproots himself from his life in Stockholm, moving to Hedeby in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record, and begins the process of analysing the more than 40 years worth of information Henrik Vanger has obsessively compiled around the circumstances of the day Harriet disappeared. Hedeby is home to several generations of Vangers, all part owners in Vanger Enterprises. Under the pretext of researching the family history, Blomkvist becomes acquainted with the members of the extended Vanger family, most of whom resent his presence, worried that he seeks to take advantage of the obsession of a sick old man.
Meanwhile, Salander is assigned a new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman, a sadist who extorts sexual favors from her in return for access to her trust fund. He eventually rapes her, unaware that she had been videotaping his actions. She retaliates a few days later by incapacitating him with a taser, tying him up, forcing him to watch the recording of the tape and threatening to make it public unless he arranges for her to have permanent control over her money. Before she leaves, she tattoos "I am a sadistic pig, a pervert, and a rapist" in large letters on his torso.
Blomkvist fulfills his contractual obligations by immersing himself in the case. After discovering that Salander has hacked into his computer, he persuades her to assist him with research. Together, they discover entries in Harriet's diary that list the names of missing local women corresponding with Bible verses describing brutal forms of divine retribution; this leads them to suspect that they are on the trail of a serial killer who has been at large for decades. They eventually become lovers, but Blomkvist has trouble getting close to Salander, a loner who treats virtually everyone she meets with hostility.
Ultimately the two discover that Harriet's brother Martin, now CEO of Vanger Industries, has been raping and murdering women for years, having been "initiated" into serial murder by his father, Gottfried, who also sexually abused him and Harriet. Blomkvist attempts to confront Martin, who kidnaps him and takes him to a torture chamber hidden in Martin's house. While gloating over his crimes, Martin reveals that he is not responsible for Harriet's disappearance and presumed murder. As Martin is about to kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth bursts in and attacks, rescuing him. Lisbeth frees Blomkvist as Martin escapes and flees in his car. She pursues him on her motorcycle to the highway, only to see him kill himself by veering straight into a massive head-on collision with a truck.
Blomkvist and Lisbeth realize that Harriet was not actually murdered, but ran away to escape from her brother, who had been sexually abusing her. Using Lisbeth's hacking skills and contacts, they track her to Australia, where she runs a sheep farming company. Confronted, she confirms their account of the case, but also reveals that she was actually 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 business.
Vanger's promises of evidence regarding Wennerström prove to have been mostly a lure for Blomkvist and are not especially substantial. However, using her investigative skills, Salander breaks into Wennerström's computer and discovers that his crimes go beyond even what Blomkvist was convicted of libel for printing. Using the evidence she found, Blomkvist prints an exposé article and book which destroys Wennerström and catapults him and Millennium to national prominence.
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