- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0141180412
- ISBN-13: 978-0141180410
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 259 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#330,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Mythology > Sagas
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superbly written and profound,
By A Customer
This review is from: Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I read this trilogy of books years ago, when I was a young woman. Twenty-five years later, I want to read it again: I still remember it as one of the best novels I have ever read - perhaps even THE best. Every one over the age of 30 should read it. It will haunt you for the rest of your days.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Translation,
By nhandson (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I find it interesting that most of the division on this book still stems from the translation. Nunnally is an excellent and faithful translator of Norwegian. To answer the one reviewer as to how some of us feel qualified to judge, there are some of us who do read Norwegian. I was shocked at the liberty Archer had taken with Undset's works, going so far as to change the titles (the original titles do in fact translate as The Wreath, The Wife and The Cross, not as Archer's overwrought titles). Nunnally's translation returns dignitiy and immediacy to the work. One reviewer noted that the story need not have taken place in the middle ages but in almost any century. This is one of the main points and the Undset's use of a contemporary idiom enforces this impression. Finally we can read this novel not just as some medieval costume drama but as a timeless story of love and morality and judge it on its literary merits. It is also heartening to see that Nunnally has now also given us a new translation of Jenny. Finally Undset is some much needed attention.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nunally does a service to Undset,
By
This review is from: Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
When I was about 12 I tried to read Kristin Lavransdatter, and gave up quickly. The Archer translation was filled with "difficult" language: medieval archaisms seemed to slow down the language somehow. Kristin was written in the 1920s and takes place in the middle ages, but the archer translation (the one most readily available) alienated me from it so much that I gave up. Nunally's language is fresh and clear. It doesn't have the artificial ring of a translation. I don't know Norwegian, but I feel like she stayed as close as she could to Undset's original syntax and language.Oh, and the story is great, too. The timeless problems of forbidden love, children born out of wedlock, and familial conflicts are presented through the eyes of a perfectly ordinary woman: Kristin Lavransdatter. It's been said she was the first perfectly real woman in all literature. In "The Wreath," the reader encounters Kristin's early life to her marriage and the difficult decisions she makes. Nunally writes of Kristin's actions without condemnation, but with compassion. I think this impartiality gives the book more power. THe reader is left to judge Kristin. Also, this is not one of those overwrought books in which every sentence must be analyzed for symbolism. One can read into Kristin Lavransdatter on many levels, but it does not consist wholly of linguistic capering as so many modern novels do. At the very least, it's just a great story with some extremely memorable characters. Undset was the first woman to win the Nobel prize for literature, and largely because of Archer's *hesitation* LOUSY translations, she's fallen into obscurity in the USA, at least. Hopefully with the advent of Nunally's fresh new translations of Kristin Lavransdatter and Jenny, Undset will once more reappear on the literary landscape.
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