**"[Sigrid Undset] should be the next Elena Ferrante."
--**Slate
A Penguin Classic
Kristin Lavransdatter interweaves political, social, and religious
history with the daily aspects of family life to create a colorful,
richly detailed tapestry of Norway during the fourteenth-century. The
trilogy, however, is more than a journey into the past. Undset's own
life--her familiarity with Norse sagas and folklore and with a wide
range of medieval literature, her experiences as a daughter, wife, and
mother, and her deep religious faith--profoundly influenced her writing.
Her grasp of the connections between past and present and of human
nature itself, combined with the extraordinary quality of her writing,
sets her works far above the genre of "historical novels." This new
translation by Tina Nunnally--the first English version since Charles
Archer's translation in the 1920s--captures Undset's strengths as a
stylist. Nunnally, an award-winning translator, retains the natural
dialog and lyrical flow of the original Norwegian, with its echoes of
Old Norse legends, while deftly avoiding the stilted language and false
archaisms of Archer's translation. In addition, she restores key
passages left out of that edition.
Undset's ability to present a meticulously accurate historical portrait
without sacrificing the poetry and narrative drive of masterful
storytelling was particularly significant in her homeland. Granted
independence in 1905 after five hundred years of foreign domination,
Norway was eager to reclaim its national history and culture. Kristin
Lavransdatter became a touchstone for Undset's contemporaries, and
continues to be widely read by Norwegians today. In the more than 75
years since it was first published, it has also become a favorite
throughout the world.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of
classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700
titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the
series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and
notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
