This article deals with the famous Italian actress Adelaide Ristori (1822–1906) who toured all over the world during the second half of the 19th Century. Her celebrated performances in Stockholm in 1879 and 1880 are witnessed in contemporary memories, diaries, and biographies, but also in fiction during the 1880s by autors like Emilie Lundberg Elin Améen, Frans Hedberg, and Josefina Wettergrund. While the more bio graphi cal articles discuss Ristori’s performances and greatness as an artist, her function in the fictional stories is more symbolic and she is regarded as either a threat or an enticement.

Eva Heggestad is professor emerita at the department of literature, Uppsala University. Her main research interests focus on Swedish literature from a gender perspective.