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Papers Presented at a Conference Sponsored by the Wethersfield Insititute, New York City, April 24, 1992 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

World Literature At Its Best From Sigrid Undset
If you asked, in a name recognition sense, who was Sigrid Undset - most likely your response would be a puzzled expression. If, however, you are a reader, enthusiast, fine collector of Masterpieces in literature or a student, teacher of great literature - the answer would ring clear as a bell. Sigrid Undset was the first woman in history to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 for her trilogy (please buy this Masterpiece work from Amazon.com) entitled "Kristin Lavransdatter." Another woman was in the running for the prize - a name many would recognize: Karen Blixen or Isak Dinesen for the great work, "Out of Africa." But no. Sigrid Undset won it hands down. And it has NEVER been out of print since 1928. An accomplishment few authors in history could claim as their own. This book is her biography - most personal, intense, and truly a work of art in and of itself. If you want to know who was the woman behind one of the spectacular Masterpieces among the best World Literature has to offer, this book is well worth the price...and more. [Oh -and this is a hardcover book just for your info]. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

a MUST-READ for a book club
This novella should fit comfortably beside the plays of Sophocles or Aeschylus or the tragedies of Shakespeare. Don't let that intimidate you: it's more accessible than all of them, and a perfect book for a book club. It's the story of a man who commits a despicable act of violence in his immaturity, against a woman who must live with the consequences all her life - as must he. Questions of justice, repentance, mercy, and forgiveness are raised - and left to readers to answer as best we can. Undset's portrayals of the characters maximize the difficulties of these questions and the discussions which readers will be craving after finishing this fine book. I picked it up to see if I like Undset enough to commit to 1000 pages of Kristen Lavransdatter. I have since picked up that meganovel - and find it, so far, less engaging by far than Gunnar's Daughter, which deserves one of the highest places in the canon of Western literature.

The more things change. . . .
In writing Gunnar's Daughter, Sigrid Undset had two aims: to show that the struggles of the human person against himself, others, and nature have no history; and to reveal a pagan past as it actually was--cruel and bloody in contrast to the growing Christian faith it encountered. In both cases, she succeeded brilliantly.

Take the first case. You often hear yammering from certain quarters that it is possible for human beings to progress as a society beyond their passions. Myopic nonsense! The characters of Gunnar's Daughter hurt themselves and others, and love as much as they hate, with exactly the same capacity as anyone today. An honest reader will realize that we are no better at heart than the men (and woman) whose stories are told here--but also that we are no worse. What we have hated and loved and yearned for, men and women have always hated and loved and yearned for. In reading this you realize for the first time that you can actually appreciate your ancestors as living men and women, and not as faceless DNA donors.

In the second case, in Undset's time--the early 20th century--there was then as now the movement to glorify the pre-Christian past, the sort of naivety only possible from the safety of the Christianized world. Undset was rightly disturbed by this movement, and in Gunnar's Daughter she draws the picture of bloody, violent, might-makes-right world--and better yet, shows the redeeming effect of Christianity as it makes its way into Scandinavia. Contrast Vigdis' exposure of her healthy but unwanted infant--an unremarkable event in her time, even if, as Undset shows, one not done without lingering sorrow--with the later refusal of Viga-Lyot to expose his deformed and sickly baby expressly because, as he states, he is a Christian, and will not hear of it. This is of even more interest in our day, when the growing nonChristian influence on our society has led us full circle to a time when once again the unwanted baby is done away with--Undset's picture was more prescient than she knew.

All in all, a haunting and true book.

A Very Fine Example of the Saga as Modern Novel
In this case of medieval date rape and the grim consequences which follow hard upon it, Sigrid Undset created a wonderfully literate experience using the saga "voice". Although I detected slippages in tone, here and there, and felt the ending too contrived and overwrought to be pure saga, I was still swept along by this book, finishing it in a single sitting. It is short, yes, but also a very compelling narrative as it details the tribulations of two would-be lovers who are yet too proud and self-willed for their own good or for the society in which they find themselves. As with the typical viking hero, Viga-Ljot is overly confident of his own charms and impatient of results. And Vigdis, the maid he has set his heart on, is no less aloof and overbearing in her own way than that historical figure, Sigrid the Haughty, who so angered King Olaf Tryggvesson that he slapped her in the midst of their courtship and thereby sealed his doom. Viga-Ljot does much worse in this tale and his fate is thus forever bound up with a woman who cannot forget or forgive him. Like Gudrun Osvif's daughter in Laxdaela Saga, Vigdis bides her time and nurses her pain but, in the end, that pain is not assuaged by the actions she takes, for it is ultimately destructive to everyone it touches.

A good example of the saga form in modern literature indeed, and yet, despite the finely tuned prose of this novel, capturing the nuances and understatement of the saga voice with masterly strokes, there is an underlying stridency here, an almost emotional overreaching which is not, itself, true to the saga form. In some ways this book is too modern and its author's sensibility, at this juncture in her career, almost too young and unseasoned. Undset seems to be reaching for the tragic denouement of the Greek classics to end her tautly told tale rather than content herself with the flatly understated and finely nuanced wrap-up more appropriate to the saga form. But this Greek-like ending left me much colder than the drily tossed-off afterthought of a true saga might have done. And yet, for all that, Undset has here given us one of the better modern novels done in saga form. My hat is off to her.

By the way, for another really fine novel based on the old sagas, one, in fact, that I think outdoes even this one, try SAGA: A NOVEL OF MEDIEVAL ICELAND by contemporary Canadian author Jeff Janoda. Many have tried to evoke the sagas in modern prose but few have done it as well as he has. Janoda has written a contemporary novel that does genuine justice to its original source, Eyrbyggja Saga, while not succumbing to the overwrought sensibility which mars GUNNAR'S DAUGHTER at the end. If you like fiction grounded in the old Norse saga literature, then Janoda's book should be your very next stop.

SWMThe King of Vinland's Saga

Same old same old
Undset, Lagerlof, Bjornson, Hamsun, Gustafsson; five stars aren't enoughto reflect the masterpieces that they all wrote, and, in the case ofGustafsson, are still writing. Read all their books and grow a lifetime ina couple of years.

I suppose that anything that sells books makes it tothe top of the page, although I appreciate that the first review I readabout this book was straightforward, unbiased and sans agenda.I have beenreading the great writers of the world since I learned to read. I began toexplore the works of Undset, Lagerlof, Bjornson, Hamsun, Gustafsson, etc.,thirty years ago and it irks me no end that the works of a Scandinavianwriter like Undset, who lived in a time when women had all the rights inthe world, should be referenced by your commentator from Brattleboro, VT aswomens fiction. If she has read "The Master of Hestviken" or"Kristen Lavransdatter", then she must have missed all thesuffering endured by the men and women. Great works of creativity do notaddress personal agendas. They are wrought from the soul. Lagerlofs'"Saga of Gosta Berling", another masterpiece, explores the samemoral questions with a male protagonist. I say to you, dear lady fromVermont, that feminism is dead; we are all feminine and masculineregardless of our plumbing, and the last GREAT female poet, Sylvia Plath,lived the pain of that polarity until it killed her.Shame on youAmazon.com for using divisiveness and the promulgation of hatred, fear, andmisunderstanding to make a buck. Publish this!!

Fast-paced tale with wonderful Scandinavian folklore...
Sigrid Undset's Gunnar's Daughter weaves Scandinavian folklore, mythology and violence to ensnare the reader into the period of the Saga Age. In this book, we meet Vigdis Gunnarsdatter -- a survivor in many different levelswho is raped and delivers an illegitimate child. As it is said that timeheals old wounds, that is not the case with Vigdis. Even with her eventualredemption, peace of mind still eludes her until she takes her very lastbreath. The scope of history and folklore in Gunnar's Daughter makes thisan interesting and quick read. However, it is highly recommended that thereader marks the introduction and notes by Sherrill Harbison -- as theyprovide much information that makes the book more insightful andpleasurable to read. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Scandinavian Studies, published by Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study on June 22, 1995. The length of the article is 1004 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sigrid Undset on Saints and Sinners: New Translations and Studies. (book reviews)
Author: Sherrill Harbison
Publication: Scandinavian Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1995
Publisher: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Volume: v67Issue: n3Page: p371(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Scandinavian Studies, published by Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study on March 22, 1999. The length of the article is 5425 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset, the author of "Kristin Lavransdatter" and "Olav Audunsson," is underrated. Critics call attention to her realistic portrayal of Norway's medieval history and an unimpressive literary style. She however represents a strong contribution to a literary tradition based on well-developed characters, exploration into morals and psychology, and narrative strength.

Citation Details
Title: Unfashionable "Kristin Lavransdatter".(novel by Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset)
Author: Otto Reinert
Publication: Scandinavian Studies (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1999
Publisher: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Volume: 71Issue: 1Page: 67(1)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Scandinavian Studies, published by Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study on December 22, 2001. The length of the article is 640 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sigrid Undset in America: An Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide. (Reviews). (book review)
Author: Sherrill Harbison
Publication: Scandinavian Studies (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2001
Publisher: Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study
Volume: 73Issue: 4Page: 606(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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