Gunnar’s Daughter, by Sigrid Undset

February 15, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Nobel Prize Winner, Norwegian writer, recommendation, Sigrid Undset 

(Translated by Arthur G. Chater.New : York: Knopf, 1936. New translation by Tiina Nanally.) (Norwegian title: Fortællingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis. Christiania (Oslo): Aschehoug, 1909.)


Set in Norway and Iceland at the beginning of the eleventh century, Gunnar’s Daughter is the story of the beautiful, spoiled Vigdis Gunnarsdatter, who is casually raped by the man she had wanted to love.

A woman of courage and intelligence, Vigdis is toughened by adversity. Alone she raises the child conceived in violence, repeatedly defending her autonomy in a world governed by men. Alone she also gradually rebuilds her life and restores her family’s honor, until an unrelenting social code propels her to take the action that again destroys her happiness.

More than a historical romance, Gunnar’s Daughter depicts characters driven by passion and vengefulness, themes as familiar in Undset’s own time – and in ours – as they were in the Saga Age. A strong, unsentimental book by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset. Still very well worth reading!

Tags: , , , , ,

The Faithful Wife, by Sigrid Undset

November 10, 2008 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Nobel Prize Winner, Norwegian writer, recommendation 

In The Faithful Wife, Sigrid Undset examines women’s relationship to professional life, to eroticism and childlessness. Nathalie is a modern woman of her time; she is liberated, The Faithful Wife, by Sigrid Undsethas a good education and a leading position. She has been married to Sigurd for sixteen years, but they have no children. Nevertheless, their marriage has been happy and safe, Nathalie thinks. But while she is faithful, she finds out that her husband is not. What is wrong? What can she do?

In her works, Sigrid Undset, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, combines knowledge of history with psychological analysis and a powerful style. With this ‘domestic epic’, a sweeping drama set against a carefully studied social background, she broke a new ground. Undset turned away from the sentimental style of national romanticism, towards neo-realism. She wrote novels about women’s conditions which at the time when they were published were considered provocative and explicit.

The Faithful Wife was Sigrid Undset’s last contemporary novel, and it also bears witness to the age in which it was written – an inter-war period marked by rising Nazism and discussions about the value of human life. Sigrid Unset once again proves herself as a perceptive interpreter of the conditions and life’s of women as well as of this particular time period. To me, it was to some extent an eye-opener, but about women’s conditions at th time and about this moment in history.

The Faithful Wife is a wonderful book by one of the most talented Norwegian authors, and a book that raises fundamental questions that still are important to women, concerning the understanding of the nature of relationships between the sexes.

To read more about Sigrid Undset, go to Leserglede’s Sigrid Undset page or to Wikipedia.

If you want to order at Amazon US you can use these links: Sigrid Undset’s The Faithful Wife or her famous Kristin Lavransdatter: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). Amazon UK customers, please use the following links: The Faithful Wife or Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy: “Bridal Wealth”, “Mistress of Husaby” and “The Cross”

Tags: , , , , , , , ,