Synopsis
In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth-century Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life story of one passionate and headstrong woman. Painting a richly detailed backdrop, Undset immerses readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political and religious undercurrents of the period. Now in one volume, Tiina Nunnally’s award-winning definitive translation brings this remarkable work to life with clarity and lyrical beauty.
As a young girl, Kristin is deeply devoted to her father, a kind and courageous man. But when as a student in a convent school she meets the charming and impetuous Erlend Nikulaussøn, she defies her parents in pursuit of her own desires. Her saga continues through her marriage to Erlend, their tumultuous life together raising seven sons as Erlend seeks to strengthen his political influence, and finally their estrangement as the world around them tumbles into uncertainty.
With its captivating heroine and emotional potency, Kristin Lavransdatter is the masterwork of Norway’s most beloved authorâ one of the twentieth century’s most prodigious and engaged literary mindsâ and, in Nunnally’s exquisite translation, a story that continues to enthrall.
- A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with French flaps and rough front
- Includes a new introduction by Scandinavian literature expert Brad Leithauser especially commissioned for this edition
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From the Inside Flap
"The finest historical novel our 20th century has yet produced; indeed it dwarfs most of the fiction of any kind that Europe has produced in the last twenty years."
-- Contemporary Movements in European Literature, edited by William Rose and J. Isaacs
"As a novel it must be ranked with the greatest the world knows today." -- Montreal Star
"Sigrid Undset's trilogy embodies more of life, seen understandingly and seriously... than any novel since Dostoievsky's Brothers Karamazov. It is also very probably the noblest work of fiction ever to have been inspired by the Catholic art of life." -- Commonweal
"No other novelist, past or present, has bodied forth the medieval world with such richness and fullness of indisputable genius.... One of the finest minds in European literature."
-- New York Herald Tribune
"This trilogy is the first great story founded upon the normal events of a normal woman's existence. It is as great and as rich, as simple and as profound, as such a story should be."
-- Ruth Suckow in the Des Moines Register
From the Back Cover
"We consider it the best book our judges have ever selected and it has been better received by our subscribers than any other book," says the Book-of-the-Month Club.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy
Seller: Magus Books, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Three mass market paperbacks in a hard cardboard slipcase. The paperbacks have some creasing on their spines, but the bindings are not broken and the text clean. Seller Inventory # KLT
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Kristin Lavransdatter [Trilogy]; Volume I, The Bridal Wreath; Volume II, The Mistress of Husaby; and Volume III,, Nobel The Cross
Published by
Bantam 1978-9, New York, 1978
ISBN 10: 0553186183
ISBN 13: 9780553186185
Used
Paperback
Seller: Ground Zero Books, Ltd., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. Mixed printings. 3 Volume Set, Volumes I, II, and III. Volume I: The Bridal Wreath, ISBN: 0-553-10936-7, [4], 343, [5] Pages, 3rd Printing, 1978 [stated]; Volume II: The Mistress of Husaby, ISBN: 0-553-11030-6, [4], 411, [1] pages, Illustrations. 2nd Printing, 1978 [stated]; Volume III: The Cross, ISBN: 0-553-11096-9, [4], 424, [4] pages, 1st Printing, 1979 stated. With Set box In Good Condition. Sigrid Undset (20 May 1882 - 10 June 1949) was a Danish-born Norwegian novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Born in Denmark and raised in Norway, Undset had her first books of historical fiction published in 1907. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945. Her best-known work is Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy about life in Norway in the Middle Ages, portrayed through the experiences of a woman from birth until death. Its three volumes were published between 1920 and 1922. She joined the Norwegian Authors' Union in 1907 and from 1933 through 1935 headed its Literary Council, eventually serving as the union's chairwoman from 1936 until 1940. at the age of 25, Undset made her literary debut with a short realistic novel on adultery, set against a contemporary background. It created a stir, and she found herself ranked as a promising young author in Norway. During the years up to 1919, Undset published a number of novels set in contemporary Kristiania. Her contemporary novels of the period 1907-1918 are about the city and its inhabitants. In her great historical epic Kristin Lavransdatter, set in fourteenth-century Norway, Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset tells the life story of one passionate and headstrong woman. Painting a richly detailed backdrop, Undset immerses readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political and religious undercurrents of the period. Now in one volume, Tiina Nunnally's award-winning definitive translation brings this remarkable work to life with clarity and lyrical beauty. As a young girl, Kristin is deeply devoted to her father, a kind and courageous man. But when as a student in a convent school she meets the charming and impetuous Erlend Nikulaussan, she defies her parents in pursuit of her own desires. Her saga continues through her marriage to Erlend, their tumultuous life together raising seven sons as Erlend seeks to strengthen his political influence, and finally their estrangement as the world around them tumbles into uncertainty. With its captivating heroine and emotional potency, Kristin Lavransdatter is the masterwork of Norway's most beloved author, one of the twentieth century's most prodigious and engaged literary minds, and, in Nunnally's exquisite translation, a story that continues to enthrall. In 1997, the first volume of Tiina Nunnally's new translation of the work won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in the category of translation. The names of each volume were translated by Archer as The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross, and by Nunnally as The Wreath, The Wife, and The Cross. Seller Inventory # 85713