Description
Book Synopsis Marta Oulie, written in diary form, intimately documents the inner life of a young woman disappointed by the conventions of marriage and longing for passion. Set in early twentieth century Kristiania (now Oslo), this is an incomparable psychological portrait of a woman whose destiny is defined by the changing mores of her day—as she descends into an ever-darker reckoning.
Trade Review "Like those two other great European novels of adultery,
Lady Chatterley's Lover and
Anna Karenina,
Marta Oulie traces the interior life of a woman from the beautiful and expansive rush of her first love, to her swelling dissatisfaction with her ‘doll's house’ existence constrained by turn-of-the-nineteenth-century values, her growing distance from her adoring husband, her unconsidered entry into an affair, and finally to her ultimate disillusion, self-recrimination, and despair. Thanks to Tiina Nunnally’s nuanced translation, we can experience this strangely compelling novel in all the precise observations of Undset’s original Norwegian text."
—Susan Vreeland, author of
Clara and Mr. Tiffany and
Luncheon of the Boating Party"A vote of gratitude is due to the University of Minnesota Press for bringing us, for the first time in English, this impeccably translated edition of Undset's early and remarkable novella." —John Banville
"Most of Undset’s later novels—including the medieval epic “Kristin Lavransdatter,” which earned her the Nobel Prize—took their cue from this blunt début, dealing in various ways with the social and familial constraints of women." —
The New Yorker
"It’s unsurprising that Undset won a Nobel Prize for Literature, and I’m shocked that it took this long to become more widely known in the United States. I’d compare it to Hardy’s
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, or even
The Scarlet Letter in its intensity." —
Off the Book
"Undset’s writing is vivid, engaging, and fast moving. Never before published in English, this translation by Tiina Nunnally is clear, stark and gripping." —
The Chronicle-JournalTable of ContentsContents
IntroductionJane SmileyMarta OuliePart IPart IIPart III
