num_pages: 174
description: As recounted in the opening chapter, "Roots in the Homeland," Rolvaag lived his first twenty years in a Norwegian fishing village, where the great facts of existence were the sea and the starkly beautiful landscape, and where the stern faith of the inhabitants was leavened and enriched by folklore and myth. Chapter 2 tells of his transplantation to America in 1896 and the disheartening period when he struggled to stay afloat and get an education. Subsequent chapters are devoted to the apprentice novels, among them the unpublished "Nils and Astri," ON FORGOTTEN PATHS, LETTERS FROM AMERICA, THE BOAT OF LONGING, and PURE GOLD; the works of Rolvaag's artistic maturity, GIANTS IN THE EARTH, PEDER VICTORIOUS, and THEIR FATHER'S GOD; and the projected novel, intended to complete the Peder cycle, of which we were deprived by Rolvaag's untimely death in 1931. Plot summaries are included for the less known works. In the past the Rolvaag canon has been highly praised, but - except for GIANTS IN THE EARTH - it has not commanded the audience it deserves. This sympathetic and authoritative study should help to redress the balance.
language: English
title: Rolvaag: His Life and Art
titlecomplete: Rolvaag: His Life and Art
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr