Sigrid Undset -- Kristin Lavransdatter, Master of Hestviken, Jennie, and more

Extollager

Extollager

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Chrons needs a thread on this superlative Norwegian author. Her books have been a major literary discovery of the past 20 years of my reading life. The Kristin trilogy is a good place to start, but I have found that there's a lot more to her work than these well-known books. She seems to me worthy of comparison with the 19th-century Russian masters. If anyone is interested in a very readable and interesting small book about her, the one by Mitzi Brunsdale is recommended, although it might not be easy to find. For my own use, I ended up photocopying a library copy.

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Nice one....:)

I have the Kirstin Lavransdatter trilogy and had planned to read it this year. I knew her previously by reputation alone but only purchased this edition a few years back.
 
Do you have the Nunnally translations in Penguin? Those would be the versions I'd recommend, rather than the older ones in this case.

It's about time for me to reread the Kristin trilogy, but I think I will go for a rereading of the Master of Hestviken quartet first. (I have it in a nice old one-volume hardback. It was reprinted in a one-volume paperback edition some years ago, also.) Some readers think the Hestviken books are even superior to the Kristin ones, I believe.

I've read a number of her other books too -- often overlooked, but well worth reading, for example the autobiographical Longest Years. A number of her books seem to be out of print, but weren't very costly to acquire used. Knopf (American publisher) seems to have issued just about all the Undset available at the time in uniform editions, kind of like the publisher did with Arthur Machen.
 
Think I'll reread Gunnar's Daughter and maybe post some remarks here. Looks like I will put off Balzac's Black Sheep and Mann's Transposed Heads....
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Based on the description alone Gunnar's Daughter sounds like quite a confronting, gripping and overall thought-provoking tale. I'll be interested in reading any comments you do post.
 
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