The Story of Gösta Berling

Description

Nobel-prize winner Selma Lagerlöf is most widely known for her Niels Holgerson stories, but her literary talent is present in her less famous works as well, such as The Story of Gösta Berling, also known as The Gösta Berling Saga.

Lagerlöf’s debut novel features the adventures of a deposed, defrocked minister, Gösta Berling. He is saved from freezing to death by the old Mistress of Ekeby manor, then he becomes one of the pensioners at the manor – and one of those who take over the power to run the manor. Gösta Berling is a true leader, a charming personality who finds a lot of devoted followers among the pensioners and who becomes involved in a lot of wild, often bizarre adventures. We see realistic elements mingle with the supernatural at every step in the story – we have not only events that could have really happened in the Swedish countryside, but fairy-tale happenings as well.

The Story of Gösta Berling was written for a literary contest the author participated in and it brought her the prize, too. Published several times in Swedish, the story was often called the “prose epic of Swedish country life” and enjoyed immense popularity. The book first appeared in English in 1894 and was such an extraordinary success that it was sold out a few days after it appeared. Even so, it was re-printed only more than a decade later, in 1918 – this time with 8 chapters that were eliminated from the first version. The book was re-translated in 1962, then again in 2009, all the translations having a different style and a different focus. The extraordinary, lively story has been adapted to several other genres as well – the first one, a Swedish film adaptation starred a very young Greta Garbo, and there is also an opera that is based on the story.
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