He leído 'Svanhild', aunque parece que lo han titulado en esa edición 'Simonse'. Quiero llorar. Llamaré a mi hija Svanhild. Hermoso nombre. Aunque no sé si intuí su pronunciación. Espero sí. Lo pronuncio tal cual lo leo.

=== A fine selection of the Nobel laureate’s early writings ===

Sigrid Undset was a giant among early twentieth century authors—especially women authors. Undset’s two monumental works, the trilogy ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ and the tetralogy ‘Olav Audunssøn’ (titled The Master of Hestviken in English), both set in Medieval Norway, for which she earned her Nobel Prize in literature, greatly overshadow her earlier and later works. This book includes her first full length novel, Jenny, two short stories, and her letter to a Swedish friend from 1900-12.

Jenny is principally the story of two women and four men, all aspiring artists in Rome and in Kristiania (later renamed Oslo) in the 1910s. In turn three of the men declare their love for Jenny and their wish to have her as their own. The least likely candidate surreptitiously endears himself to her; a consensual but lopsided sexual relationship results. Perhaps the most likely candidate becomes alienated from her and in the end violates her. The third candidate only awakens to his love for Jenny after years of just being a close friend; but he is only met with reluctance and hesitancy. The fourth man marries Jenny’s flirtatious, capricious and vacillating friend Fransiska.

‘Great Expectations Unfulfilled’ would be an apt title for ‘Jenny.’ Here is a beautiful introverted woman whose young life subsists on trivial pleasures, love of nature, hopes, dreams and expectations. But in Jenny’s idealistic reveries reality never seems to bring fulfilment. Or, if fulfilment seems to have been reached, even for a fleeting moment, she frets and worries about its unavoidable pending demise. And her lack of fulfilment and success is existentially attributed by herself to the failure to follow her creative instincts and make the right choices about relationships. This is a somber and brooding tale offering deeply profound psychological and emotional struggle. It was a much criticized but significant literary achievement which tackled controversial themes of moral and gender conflicts at a time of imminent social upheaval (WW 1).

As reflected in this novel, between the lines, Undset was not a typical feminist. She favoured women’s rights to academic, artistic and financial independence but she also valued women’s traditional roles in the home as loving and devoted wives and mothers. Although ‘God’ is mentioned in this work, as having some relevance to the characters’ lives, Undset was pretty much a free thinker in her youth and early twenties. But even at that age her narratives seem to quest after answers to ‘a bigger question’ which transcend logic and crass realism. After a crisis of faith her much condemned conversion from Protestant Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism occurred in 1924 when she had for some time been writing about situations rooted in medieval pre-Reformation times that were dominated by staid traditional norms and adherence to religious orthodoxy.

Thjodolf is an extended short story. It is a tale about Helene, an uneducated, unsophisticated working class woman who toils for her livelihood. She gives birth but the child soon dies. She answers a newspaper notice about taking on a newly born infant whose mother has given him up. An amount of money is exchanged before Helene takes possession of the boy. She revels in being a mother to the child and he thrives with her care. Then a day arrives when she and her husband must part with Thjodolf. This is principally a story of a devoted mother who desires nothing more than to love and care for a child and be a good wife but is betrayed on two fronts by cruel destiny.

Simonsen is a melancholy short story about a kindly man, a widower, approaching his senior years. Not being ambitious or capable to succeed in either his working life or privately, he takes things as they come, relying on his successful son to bail him out whenever he loses his job—lately a frequent occurrence. He has lived without the benefit of marriage with an industrious seamstress, Olga, with whom he has a little daughter, Svanhild. Olga has also a son by a fiancée who deserted her. Simonsen’s daughter-in-law is his worst enemy, wishing to distance herself and the family from Simonsen, Olga and her children. This story contrasts greatly in mood and tone with the previous pages of the book. It describes the hardships of a worker down on his luck who tries to take heart from simple joys: thankful devotion to his partner Olga and a generous affection for their daughter Svanhild. When he is forced to go away from his family to work elsewhere he grieves but finds consolation in the One Above.

Undset’s letters to her Swedish friend, Dea Hedberg, provide a fine conclusion to this book, providing readers with insight into her intelligent observances about life, her opinions about the habits of women and men, her ceaseless writing pursuits and the dreariness of her office work. Her greatest difficulty was to find companionship and someone to love and admire who would be capable of intelligent conversation. Up until meeting her future husband, Anders, in Rome in 1909, her letters portray a woman who battles melancholy, depression and pessimism. The concluding letter in the book, written in Rome in 1913, soon after the birth of her son, reflects a happy woman who is in a loving relationship in surroundings that come as close to her ideals as imaginable. Her books had already been well received and she looked forward to a bright future with her husband, a successful painter. Being able to read these letters gives the reader a better understanding of Undset’s comprehensive thought process that found expression in the profound literature she produced.

I mean??? As a lifelong fan of Selma Lagerlöf, I wish someone had recommended Sigrid Undset to me before. Why have you all been hiding her from me? Couldn't you tell I would love this?

This is a wonderful read.