** spoiler alert ** This is Sigrid Undset's first novel, published when she was 24. The novel is written as a series of entries in a diary, which outline the thoughts and feelings of Marta Oulie, a woman in her thirties, the wife of Otto, a successful businessman and mother of four children, who allows herself to fall into an affair with Henrik, who is her cousin, her husband's best friend and business partner.
For such a young writer with no similar life experiences, Undset does a very convincing job outlining Marta's thoughts and feelings--her reminiscence of how she and her husband met, the happy early days of their marriage, her dissatisfaction with her role as wife and mother, the creeping (though undeserved) condescension in her attitude towards her husband, and her attraction towards the more sophisticated and educated Henrik. After she has her fourth child, (Henrik's), she comes to her senses and realizes how spoiled and selfish she has been, but her newfound appreciation for her family, husband, and comfortable middle class life comes too late. Otto's TB has been discovered to be terminal, and, like it or not, she's about to lose it all.
This early short novel is obviously not as complex as the historical series she is most famous for, like Kristin Lavransdatter, but it's very realistic and believable. Undset has already started to explore themes that appear in her later work: family relationships, sin, repentance, and redemption.
For such a young writer with no similar life experiences, Undset does a very convincing job outlining Marta's thoughts and feelings--her reminiscence of how she and her husband met, the happy early days of their marriage, her dissatisfaction with her role as wife and mother, the creeping (though undeserved) condescension in her attitude towards her husband, and her attraction towards the more sophisticated and educated Henrik. After she has her fourth child, (Henrik's), she comes to her senses and realizes how spoiled and selfish she has been, but her newfound appreciation for her family, husband, and comfortable middle class life comes too late. Otto's TB has been discovered to be terminal, and, like it or not, she's about to lose it all.
This early short novel is obviously not as complex as the historical series she is most famous for, like Kristin Lavransdatter, but it's very realistic and believable. Undset has already started to explore themes that appear in her later work: family relationships, sin, repentance, and redemption.
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