Just started #KristinLavransdatter 🏰
Female protagonist, medieval historical fiction set in 14th century Norway. The author won the Nobel Prize in Literature!
And pictured with the book is my reading buddy, Sylphrena. She‘s 5 months old and loves the tassel on my bookmark.
#historicalfiction #medieval #epicnovels #classicliterature
I‘m enjoying the story (although I sometimes want to throw it across the room in frustration with Kristin and Erlend‘s stupidity) but mostly I‘m enjoying the writing. Undset‘s descriptions of the landscape rival Cather‘s, and that final sunset scene? Amazing! But our girl seems to always learn things too late, and Erlend just won‘t grow up. 🤦🏻♀️ #kristinl @TheBookHippie
While this ends sadly, with the death of K‘s beloved father, it felt more hopeful to me. She‘s gaining maturity, her relationship with her mother is improving, and there was a lighter feel. But it made me sad that she couldn‘t attend her father‘s funeral. #kristinl @TheBookHippie
This volume isn‘t getting any happier, is it? Unset fell in love with a married man who took 3 years to divorce his wife and marry her. They weren‘t married very long, separating when she was pregnant with their third child and divorcing soon after. I think she was working through some personal stuff here. 😏 #kristinl @TheBookHippie
Let me just put this out there - This section made me angry. I try to judge a work by its own time and place in history, but the extreme difficulty of the birth, followed by forcing a barefoot pilgrimage just weeks after giving birth, because _she_ sinned? Compared to the penance he did, for the same sin? All I can say is, that innocent baby better not bear any more of this “fruits of sin” nonsense. And E. better get his act together. #kristinl
So marriage for our girl Kristin is not the happily ever after of fairy tales. She‘s homesick and feeling guilty, trying to hide a too-soon pregnancy, and, worst of all, playing the “if you don‘t know why I‘m unhappy, I‘m not going to tell you” game with Erlend. A pretty dark (appropriate to the winter season?) opening to this volume. But she‘s proving herself a capable manager so she just might turn Husby around. #kristinl @TheBookHippie
