Undset's novel starts in sunny Rome, where Helge, a recently-arrived Norwegian student, has stumbled across a group of artists from the same region. They introduce him to their life in Rome, which is happy and bohemian. He persuades Jenny, a painter, that she loves him.
Returning to Norway, though, Jenny finds that in the context of his family she can't find the happiness they once had, and she realizes that she's attracted to the idea of love and marriage but not actually in love with Helge. Her desire to be loved competes with both her desire for independence and her wish for a true meeting of hearts and minds. It may be a commentary on Undset's own view of the world that Jenny cannot survive once she's betrayed her own ideals.

Oh Jenny, Jenny, Jenny! Why are you so relatable? The choices she makes are so flawed, yet so human. I wanted to holler at her sometimes, but only because I loved her so! Undset’s writing is exquisite. The book started slowly, but boy did the drama BUILD! It broke my heart (though that’s somewhat easily done). As soon as I finished I began again because I wanted to see the characters in those initial scenes in a new light. I recommend this if you are a fan of Elena Ferrante, or if you love the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy (obviously). What a remarkable writer. Her books leave a mark on you that doesn’t wear away.

A bracing, clear-eyed novel that I've only just now learned I didn't get all of (the original English translation was apparently expurgated; I'll be hunting down a newer translation soon). But what I got was still excellent, and didn't leave much to the imagination: the unsentimental, non-moralizing way Undset tells her story of a woman betraying her principles (which only incidentally includes flouting conventional morality) would be hugely influential in the 1920s. The men in the novel are, to a one, revealed as laughable, self-absorbed sentimentalists: I found her portrait of the egotistic idealism of the older generation particularly cutting, after having learned a bit about the Scandinavian bohemian writers who broke taboos in the 1880s. But Jenny's own internal dilemmas struck me as consistent and true throughout: I even found echoes of despairing or self-critical thoughts I've had in her 1911-era dialogue.

The downer ending (following on the heels of Woolf's same) suggests that Undset might be at least in part criticizing a society which allows women to hope for more fulfillment than marriage and motherhood: so her later turn to Catholicism and historical fiction might be understood as a consistent rejection of modernity. But I'm too struck by the clarity of her insight, and the economical elegance of her prose, to consider her a distaff Norwegian Waugh.

This was Sigrid Undset's debut novel, coming out in 1911, long before she won the Nobel Prize in literature. And this was the new (excellent) translation by Tiina Nunnally.

It's a very "modern" book, compared with the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy that made her so famous. This book follows a young Norwegian artist named Jenny, who has gone to Italy for a year or so to polish her painting. There, she hangs out with a group of Scandinavians, also artists for the most part. There are beautiful, lengthy passages describing the sights of Rome, the surrounding countryside and the changing of the seasons.

The plot revolves around Jenny's romance with Helge, who is studying for his doctorate in archeology in Norway, doing research in Italy. Both are in their later 20's. Neither has fallen in love before. Jenny doubts that she can really fall in love, but sort of "decides to" fall in love with Helge, who adores her. They return to Norway. It turns out that he is a mama's boy, and his parents have a bitter marriage, full of hatred and silent plots. He sides with his mother, who is jealous of the beautiful Jenny. Jenny becomes friends with the father. The tension is so great that the young couple splits before marriage, and (oddly enough), Jenny takes up with the father and bears his child. She has to go into hiding in Germany to do this. I won't give away more of the plot, but let's just say that it's not cheery.

It's no wonder that Undset was considered very immoral for the book. And one can see why, 100 years later. She was really ahead of her time. She raises big questions. What is the purpose of life for an artist except commitment to their work? Is anything else of value, beside one's work, if one has a talent? How does a person really know for sure whether they are in love, and whether it will last? Is a person permanently soiled by past mistakes?

This was very much a book of its times. Still, the questions about artistic work and life purpose and love remain. Although I became tired of some of the "tell" sections (rather than "show" scenes, which would be necessary in modern novels), I still cared a lot about the characters, and couldn't put the novel down. I think it's an important discussion about morals and cultural trends occurring at the beginning of the last century, and explored new themes for the times. And Undset was really brave. I admire her for writing this book, questioning traditional mindsets about roles of female artists and women in general.

Here's a quote I especially liked:

"That's the wonderful thing about going abroad -- all influences of the people you happen to live with back home are suspended. You have to see things with your own eyes and think for yourself. And you realize that whatever you get out of the trip will depend entirely on you: what you're capable of seeing and comprehending, and how you behave, and who you choose to have an effect on you. And you learn to understand that what you get out of life depends solely on yourself. Yes, a little on circumstances, of course... But you find out how, in accordance with your own nature, you can most easily overcome or get around obstacles --both during your travels and in general. You discover that the worst difficulties you encounter are usually things you've brought on yourself." Oh, how true!!!

Some books have personal expiration dates. So much of the story of Jenny is for people who are struggling through their "years of apprenticeship". There are many long passages where characters expound on the purpose of art, love, how to live, and the complexities of womanhood. What was particularly difficult to me was that after much assertion about how to be a woman and an artist, none of the women in the book are able to sustain such a life.
Parts of the story were endearing, like the scenes between Jenny and Cesca, or memories of her childhood. I felt the character of Jenny was quite well rendered up until the end. I couldn't connect the choices she made in the last chapter with the woman from the rest of the novel.

Vil lese på nytt! Lenge siden jeg leste den og tror heller ikke at jeg ble helt ferdig med boka.

This was my third Norwegian writer in a row, after knut hamsun and Henrik Ibsen, but whereas they felt Scandinavian in nature, Sigrid Undset's novel 'Jenny' had more in common with E. M. Forster, Gustave Flaubert and even Thomas Hardy. I didn't really know what to expect, knowing little of both novel and writer (apart from her 1928 Nobel prize), and was taken aback by some gorgeous writing, that was lively, bright, and modernistic considering its age, before the narrative turned into a more sombre affair filled with a mournful sadness, but one that never over powered in the sentimental department.

The novel in essence, looks at the unflinchingly realistic depiction of a women struggling for independence and fulfillment in a male-dominated world. Jenny Winge is a talented young Norwegian painter who journeys to Paris, Florence and then Rome to seek inspiration. The story opens in Rome, where she and her friends spend their days pursuing their dreams, and their evenings socializing in the city's restaurants. Jenny, unlike her sexually liberal friends, vows to keep her virtue intact, that is until she meets fellow Norwegian Helge Gram. Putting aside the art and historical studies for a while, they spend much time in each others company, and eventually become lovers, with plans to marry in the coming months. The eternal city really captures a vibrancy in their coming together, like a holiday romance but one that will continue back on home soil. But this life is a world away from their native land. And it's not long before the cracks start to appear.

On returning home to Norway, Jenny meets Helge's parents, but the atmosphere in the Gram household is one full of jealousy and hate that weighs heavy on her shoulders. Helge's father Gert, a failed artist and womaniser takes an affectionate interest in Jenny, which she succumbs to
in a confused and dissolutionate state. Is she love sick, or just sick? as her relationship with Helge slowly dissolves. Her plight is worsened when she discovers she is carrying Gert's child, and in a brooding mood, travels away, alone, where matters would only tragically go downhill, losing faith in herself and those trying to help her, leading to a finale that shocked, but still didn't surprise me. No happy ending here.

Undset's masterly depiction of Jenny's evolving emotions makes one realize that one is in the presence of an acute observer of the way not just lovers, but people generally behave, think about, and react to each other. Some may argue Jenny's actions of destroying her artistic ambition and herself could be deemed false or unrealistic, pushed too far, and too quickly. How can a confident young woman one minute, turn into a lost and frightened of life person the next. But who knows just how terrible she was suffering, the shame she burdened really knocked the stuffing out of her. The way she deals with her different surroundings and inner desires is realistic told, and the stream of consciousness plays a big role to show Jenny's uncertainty and conflicts, and the battle she seems to be fighting when it comes to love, a love not just for others but also herself.

The writing is direct and dramatic in a manner whereby mishap and misery are discussed openly, and the weighty issues Undset examines - unrequited love, betrayal, and mortality, are infused with a lingering melancholy. But it's not all misery, as when the sun fills Undset's heart, she writes some beautiful and idyllic parts to the story, conjuring up some wonderful imagery.

I was all set to give Jenny four stars, but thought no, as I found this to be a most fulfilling novel, and surprisingly fresh in terms of classic fiction, with some passages of writing that simply took my breath away. There is a strong sorrowful bleakness to it, but there were also moments of light, filled with warmth and comfort. Undset provided much psychological insight into the lives of her protagonists and an enviable skill to tell a capturing and realistic heartfelt story.

"Je suis – Dieu merci – une artiste. On s’attend à ce nous autres, nous fassions un peu de scandale de temps à autre."

Reading JENNY has certainly intensified my respect for Undset as an author. This novel is of such a different quality than the historical fiction she is known for that I can only remark at how different her writing style had become by the time she had written KRISTEN and HESTVIKEN.

3.5/5

Story of a young woman artist who falls in love with an older married man, actually the father of a friend. Because of this dilemma she and the story is somewhat depressing. Not near my favorites by Undset.

En roman om en kvinnlig konstnär i Rom, Norge och Tyskland. Om struliga förhållanden, vänskap, moralisk ruelse och sorg. Vissa personer och diskussioner känns fortfarande oerhört aktuella, andra visar hur mycket som hänt under det senaste seklet. Jenny är en fascinerande bekantskap att göra och att leva med under läsningen. Sigrid Undset går under huden på henne och beskriver det hon går igenom mycket träffande – till exempel ångesten över vad det säger om en själv att man gått med på att ha ett förhållande med någon man inte älskade. Nu vill jag läsa mer av Sigrid Undset!
(Lyssnade på Bonnier Audios cd-bok och tyckte att efterordet av Ebba Witt-Brattström gjorde läsupplevelsen ännu större.)