I’m not really sure how to write a review on this book. There’s so much I could say, but I’ll keep it brief. This book is very focused on the consequences of sin and the sorrow and regret that follows. As such, it is a very melancholy reads at times. The writing itself is so beautiful and the characters so compelling that, although I felt the weightiness, it was never a deterrent. There are moments when it drags a bit(especially as we get into some of politics, which I had a bit of trouble following at times), but I still can’t rate this book any less than 5 stars. It’s an absolute masterpiece and one I will be thinking about for a very long time.

Un romanzo come questo riempie l'animo di sentimenti positivi, giustifica il dedicare parte del proprio tempo libero alla lettura non solo come passatempo ma anche e soprattutto come arricchimento della nostra anima di percezioni ed emozioni ormai rare nella realtà della vita quotidiana. "Kristin, figlia di Lavrans" è un romanzo tanto lungo quanto bello, ambientato nella Norvegia a volte bucolica ed altre cupa del tardo medioevo e racconta la vita della protagonista da quando è ancora una bimbetta con le treccioline, via via attraverso la fanciullezza, la scoperta dell'amore per un uomo difficile e ribelle come Erlend, il matrimonio e i figli, l'impegno di moglie, madre e proprietaria di terre e beni, fino alla scelta finale di diventare monaca e impegnarsi per più bisognosi. Un libro mai banale in cui l'introspezione psicologica, il tumulto dei pensieri e delle emozioni, la religiosità e il senso di appartenenza a Dio, l'amore per i propri cari e l'amicizia disinteressata, il senso del dovere e l'intimo desiderio di libertà morale arricchiscono l'impianto narrativo realizzando un equilibrio perfetto.

I expected to love this book. I kept thinking I would find the place where I would begin to love it. At the very end, I had to admit that I do not love this book. But I do admire it, and that deeply.

Reading Kristin Lavransdatter made me realize that the books I love best are those whose heroines I want to emulate. Kristin is no such heroine. I expected piety finally to blossom in her and guide her life into more proper constraint, but time and again she acted rashly and spoke heatedly and caused irreparable pain to others. Perhaps 800 pages in, I wanted to cry to her, "Can't you see what you're doing? Don't say those hurtful things to the people you really love!" And so it was perhaps 800 pages in that I realized Kristin does not exemplify what I desire to be; she reflects what I really am so much of the time.

Sigrid Undset has succeeded in realism, on a higher level than many other authors who aim for it, I think. Oh, undoubtedly some of the plot twists tend more toward melodrama than reality, but that hardly lessens the realism, for the bizarre and terrible do happen in real life. Trace any one person's life as Undset traces Kristin's, and you may be surprised at the strange and saddening twists that life endures. Yet beyond this, the descriptions of places and people, of smells and sights, of feelings and reasons, of sins and repentance are keenly real.

This is well-researched and honest historical fiction. It rarely stoops to imposing contemporary prejudices on its medieval subjects. The narrator's voice is almost as neutral as it could be. This is an unfolding of a woman's life, not a preaching of what her life means. And yet this very laying out of her life and thoughts does proclaim truths of very human life in a broken yet wonderful world.

I was especially struck by the book's treatment of religion. The Christian faith is integral to the life of Kristin and her kinsmen, as it would have been in actuality, though as is often glossed over in medieval historical fiction. Yet Christianity is not presented in wholly pure and pious perfection. Clergy and laity alike make serious errors. And they repent.

This seems to me to be the great point of Kristin Lavransdatter: Our life is one of constant sin and repentance. It is painful and harsh, but it is also blessed and marvelous. Are we not all like Kristin, acting and speaking in the heat of the moment, complaining grudgingly about our situation, only later realizing how precious the moments and people in our life have been? I offer two quotes:

"All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path." (Kristin, p. 1079)

She opened her eyes and looked at the ring lying in the dark palm of the smith. And her tears burst forth in torrents, for she felt as if she had never before fully understood what it signified. The life to which this ring had married her, over which she had complained and grumbled, raged and rebelled. And yet she had loved it so, rejoicing over it, with both the bad and the good, so that there was not a single day she would have given back to God without lament or a single sorrow she would have relinquished without regret. (p. 1121)

La vita di Kristin è la storia di una donna forte che sin da ragazzina lotta per l'uomo che ama; si oppone alle consuetudini e alla volontà paterna, mettendo sé stessa in gioco. Anche la sua vita coniugale con Erlend sarà una lunga battaglia, dove le volontà dei due si scontrano e si incontrano in un ciclo continuo. Kristin però è anche una donna molto dura, che non riesce a dimenticare e superare il passato. Questa severità è tanto forte verso gli altri che verso sé stessa. Infatti non riesce a perdonarsi i torti compiuti nei confronti dell'amorevole padre e della chiesa. L'elemento religioso è molto sentito ed è presente in tutta la narrazione. La seconda parte fatta di intrighi politici è la più cupa e la più difficile da seguire. In tutto il libro domina l'amore fra Kristin ed Erlend. Un amore per nulla semplice, molto passionale e radicato in entrambi. La bellissima prosa di Sigrid Undset e il dettagliato approfondimento storico rendono la lettura molto immersiva e coinvolgente. La ricchezza delle descrizioni, la forza e lo spessore dei personaggi mi hanno ricordato le grandi saghe epiche. Anche se in questo libro non ci sono battaglie o guerrieri, c'è però la lotta della vita e i grandi sentimenti che ognuno affronta. L'amore, il dolore, la passione, la rabbia, le sofferenze patite sono tutte parti essenziali del nostro percorso. Ogni tassello è fondamentale e vale la pena di essere vissuto. Anche l'amarezza dei momenti difficili non è che l'altra faccia della gioia e della felicità.

4+⭐️

“All that had happened and would happen was meant to be. Everything happens as it is meant to be.”

Quiet, slow moving, sometimes mundane (though highly readable) novel of Norwegian life in the fourteenth century centering around the complexities of Kristin Lavransdatter’s difficult life as daughter, wife, and mother. I think it’s considered epic because of just that...it gives us (now 700 years later) a glimpse of life, culture, Nordic myth, and religion in medieval times in this small corner of the world.

I’m reminded that there is nothing new under the sun with mankind. “All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path.” Just another reminder of the age old struggle that the Apostle Paul discusses so transparently in Romans chapter 7.

This book is ultimately a book about the gritty reality of choices...and consequences...of difficulty...and endurance. As Sarah Clarkson so aptly shared, Kristen is “an image of womanhood in its power, it’s frailty, and it’s capacity for strength and beauty.


A few noteworthy quotes from this lengthy tome:

“Her fathers marvelous gentleness was not because he lacked a keen enough perception of the faults and wretchedness of others; it came from his constant searching of his own heart before God, crushing it in repentance over his own failings.”

“The world is just as harsh a taskmaster as any other lord, and in the end it’s a lord without mercy.”

“Are you so arrogant that you think yourself capable of sinning so badly that God’s mercy is not great enough?”

“Yes, well... I suppose the man who owns nothing is free."
Gunnulf replied, "A man's possessions own him more than he owns them.”

“Stay calm and do not flee from Him who has been seeking you before you even existed in your mother’s womb.”

“Man proposes, God disposes.”

There was a lot to enjoy within these beautiful pages, and although this wasn't a perfect novel, I do believe that this book is meant to be savoured. Kristin Lavransdatter is a beautifully presented book with a stunning cover, because for me, a stunning cover reels me in, and this book was no different. We follow a woman from birth, to her death, and along her journey we meet lots of characters, and we learn of the impact these characters have on her life. I love that this is set in Norway, as I have always had an interest in the country, so it was wonderful to be able to learn little bits of history as I read.

It is very clear that Undset did a lot of research before writing this book, and it shows in every chapter that this was the case. The historical side of it flowed amicably, and I hold much admiration for that.

There is a but unfortunately, and there were some minor issues that added up. Kristin herself, is a strong-willed woman, that didn't have the easiest of times, but honestly, her constantly making bad choices, left me a little cold. There were some wonderfully touching scenes with Kristin, but generally, I think she needed a shake. I thought some particular scenes were exaggerated for the sake of being exaggerated, and this made me feel like it was less believable, and that I was watching a soap opera. This was a shame, because I feel some of these scenes were unnecessary, and I believe the story would have held without it.

Another issue was the main love story. I didn't love Kristin and Erlend as a couple, and although at times their characters seemed like they were finally growing together, something odd is thrown in, which is completely out of character for both of them, and all I can do is roll my eyes. I kind of liked reading a little more about the minor characters at times.

There is a lot of beauty to be found in this book, and there were scenes that left me holding my breath, whilst soaking in that Norwegian atmosphere, but the melodramatic feel to an already grand plot had an impact on my overall appreciation.

$4.19 @ Libro.fm

A tremendous novel of faith, guilt, and redemption. Sounds contrite, doesn't it? I assure you it isn't.
This is the 1100+ page life of a young woman in early 14th century Norway. That's the plot. Sure, historical events kind of wander in and out of Kristin's story, but they're most peripheral except when they touch upon her family and friends. The skinny of the story is that Kristin rejects the nice guy her father wants her to marry and marries a guy of more questionable ethical decision-making skills, but nothing plays out like you think it does. She spends the rest of her life testing the limits of her self-faith and her need for redemption in the face of family life and personal disaster.
It's a hard novel to review because there is so much quiet, simmering beauty in it and you'll read on for a hundred pages, lost in its naturalistic and quiet beauty before Undset zings you with some spontaneous action or catastrophe (or both!). The intro compares it to the suddenness and abrupt style of the Icelandic sagas, and that maybe. It reminded me more of a really good, long Kurosawa movie.
A quick comparison might beAnna Karenina for its sheer psychological depth and loveliness, but the comparison ends there. Undset's gift is combining the accuracy of her portrayal of the time with a quiet, lulling spiritual beauty that comes and goes like winter and summer in the tale. She had a deep understanding of medieval Norway and an unabashed refusal to hide her own spiritual inner life in her writings and this shines through beautifully throughout.
Much recommended!

Why in the world don't hardly any of the literati speak of this in the same breath as Tolstoy and George Eliot? I have a tough time seeing how any other 20th century novel is objectively better. There's so much else I could write and maybe I will someday, but suffice it to say that this is easily one of the most worthwhile fictional reading experiences you can give yourself, and you won't regret a moment of the time you spend with it. It's a simply told story that anyone can follow and be engrossed in, but the prose still glistens with beauty through all 1,124 pages; Undset is very wise about what to show and what to tell, and it's about the most effective that writing can be. You may find parts of it challenging to get through—the material is emotionally intense (to put it mildly), but like Tolstoy there are stretches of political descriptions that can get tedious, and if you think memorizing 20 various Fyodoriviches and Federovnas in a Russian novel is hard, then wait until you see all the Søns and Datters here! This leads me to my only real critique, and that is that at times it tries a bit too hard to be a borderline-discursive "informative explanation of a different time" in the same sense that, say The Good Earth and Things Fall Apart will always inevitably have a touch of the school assignment about them.

But the setting is also probably the novel's greatest asset, and there is perhaps no better retrospective literary treatment of the Middle Ages and all it meant and still means to the world than Undset's massive artistic triumph. There are hints of hagiography, saga, and epic throughout. It's impressive just for the huge amount of research that Undset must have done to capture so many details with such loving care. At times it struck me that Undset was consciously imitating and riffing on Beowulf, a work that I hold to be the wellspring of English literature and its great tradition of pilgrimage stories. Its treatment of medieval Catholicism is such that both the skeptic and the faithful will be challenged. But it quite literally takes in all of life along the way, and both its childbirth and its death scenes are among the most moving and immediate you will ever read. You could read yourself silly making all sorts of amazing connections between the novel's richly archetypal tapestry of recurring scenes and experiences. But even without such conscious meditation, Kristin Lavransdatter will stick in your soul if you read it all the way through at once (which is how you should read it, rather than spacing out the three volumes)—well, at least I know that's what has already happened to me. And whenever a work becomes a part of one's consciousness, that's about the highest praise one could lavish upon it.

To conclude, I've reproduced one of the novel's characteristic eye-wateringly beautiful passages below as a teaser if you're still unsure about the commitment of reading it:

"Her heart felt as if it were breaking in her breast, bleeding and bleeding, young and fierce. From grief over the warm and ardent love which she had lost and still secretly mourned; from anguished joy over the pale, luminous love which drew her to the farthest boundaries of life on this earth. Through the great darkness that would come, she saw the gleam of another, gentler sun, and she sensed the fragrance of the herbs in the garden at world's end."





Two spoilery postscripts below:




















1. In the second half, I had really high hopes that Undset would develop Simon to such an extent that the novel would morph into his story in the same way that Anna Karenina is really Levin's story. I was both shocked and a bit disappointed to see what Undset chose to have happen to him.

2. The second that the penultimate chapter mentioned the year, I knew exactly how Kristin was going to die. Still, that didn't prevent the final chapter from moving me to tears in a way that I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I haven't been since I was blown away by To Kill a Mockingbird as a kid.

As separate novels, I wouldn't probably give all of them five stars but as I am looking this series as a whole reading experience I couldn't give it no less than five stars. It is a tragic tale of Kristin, following a young girl in 14th century Norway until her very death, through hardship, shame and grief. In the first book she is lured into a passionate relationship with Erlend and this series follows their marriage and Kristin's journey in life. All of the books have heavy religious undertones, discussing sin and death in such an intricate detail. I am in love with the melancholic and utterly heartbreaking atmosphere and will be thinking about this series, surely, for a very long time. I think I need to process all my thoughts before giving a proper review but this is definitely one of the most impressing series I have ever read and I weirdly feel that this experience changed me as a person.

Originally published in the early 1920s as a trilogy, this book combines the three publications into an epic saga set in 14th century Norway about the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, starting from the time she is a young child living with her parents on their farm. She is independent-minded and manages to get what she wants while going against traditions such as arranged marriage, but she learns that often getting what she wants does not turn out as she had planned. It is based around Kristin’s relationships, family life, husband’s ambitions, and the fallout from her own rash decisions.

It is filled with the difficulties of the time, such as early deaths (especially of children) and diseases. Religion, particularly religious guilt, plays a key role. Life is filled with sadness and tragedy, and the Church offers a salve for the soul. It contains quite a bit of religious symbolism; however, the book can be appreciated without overanalyzing it. Occasionally the old pagan beliefs make an appearance. The author does a good job of depicting class differences. We also get an idea of how estates and farms were run. It also includes a plot against the king, which provides insight into the politics of the era.

It is impressive that the author keeps the pacing consistent throughout the course of over one thousand pages. Women get blamed for everything, and the patriarchal oppression gets a bit tiring after a while, but by the end, it felt like I had a sense of what life was like in rural medieval Norway. It made me glad not to have lived back then. I read the English translation from the original Norwegian by Tiina Nunnally. I can see why this book is considered a classic.

n  "tutto fu bene, anche il mio male"n

Il romanzo che fece guadagnare il Premio Nobel alla scrittrice norvegese Sigrid Undset è il racconto della vita di una donna ambientato in un Medioevo scandinavo realistico e affascinante con le sue luci ed ombre.
Kristin (la sua personalità, i suoi amori, il rapporto con il padre, con i figli, con la società del tempo) e il mondo umanissimo e variegato dei personaggi che la circondano (contadini, nobili, guerrieri, generosi o peccatori) sono resi con la forza del capolavoro: nulla è censurato, ma tutto viene approfondito ed esaltato in uno sguardo positivo sulla vita.
Letto e riletto: romanzone!