Book Review:
Kristin Lavransdatter
By Sigrid Undset
By Claire Bush
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 I’m one of the fortunate ones; I have a mother who loved to read
classic literature, and encouraged me to follow her example. During my
teen years and then as I became a young wife with a family of my own, my
mother and I had conversations that centered around the books we were
reading. In this way, I was introduced to classic authors like Leo
Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Louisa May Alcott, the Bronte sisters, George
Eliot, Thomas Hardy and many more. Not only did I get to read some great
stories, I learned about life, love, and human relationships from some
of the finest minds the past several centuries has produced.
When I was in my early 20s, my mother urged me to read Kristin
Lavransdatter, a historical trilogy of medieval Norway that had won the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1928. Since my mother’s tastes didn’t run to
historical novels, this had to be something really different.
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I was
interested, but the prospect of reading three lengthy books seemed like
too much in between juggling a career, a new home and a husband, I
waited three or four years before finally beginning the story of what
has become one of the entries on my “life list” of favorite books.
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Set in 15th Century Norway, the trilogy is composed of
three books - The Wreath,
The Mistress of Husaby
and The Cross
- which detail the life of Kristin
Lavransdatter, an ordinary woman living in a most un-ordinary time. She
falls in love with the wrong man, suffers the consequences of bad
decisions before her marriage, struggles to raise her children while
caring for her parents and coping with a husband who is more help-less
than helpmate, and endures the epidemic of the Black Plague that swept
through Europe during those years. |
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Although the story takes place 500 years ago, the questions the
novels grapple with - juggling home and family, married sexuality,
struggles with isolation and loneliness during the child raising years -
are eternal.
The movie Kristin Lavransdatter, directed by Liv Ulman, was released
in theaters in 1995. In 2006, a new translation of the trilogy was
completed by Penguin Books, which freshened and updated some of the
stilted language and difficult passages contained in the original
version’s translation into English. A recent check on ebay turned up a
paperback set of the Penguin trilogy for $10. It’s an investment worth
making.
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