num_pages: 245
description: The four stories are Selma Broter, Thjodolf, Miss SmithTellefsen &amp; Simonsen. Undset was the daughter of archeologist Ingvald Undset. Cultural, autobiographical &amp; religious topics constitute a large portion of her fiction, which in Norway is categorized according to the time of action: medieval or modern. Jenny (1911), an idealistic &amp; tragic love story, is one of the latter novels. Undset's comprehensive knowledge of medieval Scandinavian culture has its literary monuments in Kristin Lavransdatter ('20-22) &amp; The Master of Hestviken ('25-27), historical novels that depict life in the Norwegian Middle Ages. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in '28. Norwegian criticism of her writing centers on her religiosity (she became a conservative, almost reactionary Catholic in Lutheran Norway in the 20s; she possesses an intensity of belief that is rather naturally expressed in the medieval novels. Yet while she's written religious polemics, the medieval novels are not tendentious. In fact, the central motifs are eroticism, marriage &amp; family life, in short, the full life of a medieval woman who sees herself in the light of contemporary Christian beliefs. These novels are realistic delineations of medieval personalities. During WWII she escaped the German occupation of Norway &amp; fled to America, where she wrote her autobiographical Happy Times in Norway ('42).
language: Norwegian
title: Four Stories
titlecomplete: Four Stories (English and Norwegian Edition)
genres: Fiction
ratings_count: 31
publisher: Alfred K. Knopf (NY)