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$88.99
1. Folk-Lore and Legends Scandinavian
$56.60
2. A History of Danish Literature
$44.39
3. A History of Icelandic Literature
$39.99
4. A History of Norwegian Literature
$20.34
5. The Angel House (Series B: English
 
$24.95
6. From Baltic Shores (Series B:
 
7. Adam's Diary (Modern Scandinavian
 
8. Sacrificial Smoke: Volume 3 in
$74.99
9. A History of Swedish Literature
$14.88
10. Children's Island (Modern Scandinavian
$67.50
11. Gender and Representation in the
 
12. Cleng Peerson (The Library of
$21.94
13. Lucie (Series B: English Translations
 
14. A History of Finland's Literature
 
15. An Anthology Of Scandinavian Literature
$5.00
16. The Roofing Ceremony and The Silver
$20.32
17. Memoirs of a Dead Man (Series
 
$36.95
18. An Introduction to Scandinavian
$159.95
19. Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature
 
20. The Story of Borge (The Library

1. Folk-Lore and Legends Scandinavian
by Authors Various Authors
Paperback: 144 Pages (2005-07)
list price: US$88.99 -- used & new: US$88.99
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1421947528
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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more


2. A History of Danish Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature)
Hardcover: 709 Pages (1993-01-01)
list price: US$60.00 -- used & new: US$56.60
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 080323886X
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Editorial Review

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For centuries, Denmark dominated the culture of Scandinavia, and its literature has influenced such English works as Beowulf and Hamlet as well as major philosophical movements: humanism, romanticism, existentialism. With contributions from nine internationally recognized scholars, A History of Danish Literature reaches back as far as the literary record allows, to the ancient runic inscriptions, and thence to medieval Latin, the development of literature in the vernacular, and the flowering of a distinct Danish literary tradition numbering among its luminaries Hans Christian Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, and Karen Blixen. The volume includes, in addition, chapters on Faroese literature, women's literature, and children's literature.

The approach used in A History of Danish Literature is maintained in the other volumes of A History of Scandinavian Literatures, which surveys the literary history of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland. These literatures are viewed not only as part of an interrelated Scandinavian tradition but as part of world literature. A comparative approach is used through-out, and social and cultural history feature prominently. Contributors to Volume 1 include David W. Colbert, Sven H. Rossel, F.J. Billeskov Jansen, P.M. Mitchell, Niels Ingwersen, Poul Houe, W. Glyn Jones, Faith Ingwersen, and Flemming Mouritsen.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Readable
This is one of the entries in the History of Scandinavian Literatures series which were, I believe, all published in the late 1990's.

Well-written and comprehensive, this can serve as a reference book or be consumed for its narrative content. I'm impressed by the breadth and depth on display here: 709 pp with a 23 p bibliography, a 50 p index, and maps.

As far as approach goes, here's some dustjacket blurbage...

"For centuries, Denmark dominated the culture of Scandinavia, and its literature has influenced such English works as Beowulf and Hamlet as well as major philosophical movements: humanism, romanticism, existentialism. With contributions from nine internationally recognized scholars, A History of Danish Literature reaches back as far as the literary record allows, to the ancient runic inscriptions, and thence to medieval Latin, the development of literature in the vernacular, and the flowering of a distinct Danish literary tradition numbering among its luminaries Hans Christian Andersen, Soren Kierkegaard, and Karen Blixen."

"The approach used in A History of Danish Literature is maintained in the other volumes of A History of Scandinavian Literatures, which surveys the literary history of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland. These literatures are viewed not only as part of an interrelated Scandinavian tradition but as part of world literature. A comparative approach is used through-out, and social and cultural history feature prominently."


TABLE OF CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS
The Middle Ages (David W. Colbert)
From the Reformation to the Baroque (F.J. Billeskow Jansen)
The Age of Enlightenment (P.M. Mitchell)
From Romanticism to Realism (Sven H. Rossell)
The Modern Breakthrough (Niels Ingwersen)
Between the World Wars (Sven H. Rossel, Niels Ingwersen)
Danish Literature 1940-1990
Faroese Literature (W. Glyn Jones)
Danish and Faroese Women Writers (Faith Ingwersen)
Children's Literature (Flemming Mouritsen) ... Read more


3. A History of Icelandic Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature)
Hardcover: 736 Pages (2007-01-01)
list price: US$65.00 -- used & new: US$44.39
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0803233469
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A History of Icelandic Literature provides a complete overview of the literature of Iceland, from the country's settlement in the ninth century until the present day, including chapters on lesser-known areas such as drama, children's literature, women's literature, and North American Icelandic literature. It is the first work to give non-Icelandic readers a wide-ranging introduction to Iceland's literature and each contributor to this volume is a recognized expert in his or her area.

Despite its peripheral geographical position and small population, Iceland produced some of the most remarkable literary treasures of the Middle Ages, particularly sagas and Eddic poetry. These medieval works have inspired poets and writers across the centuries, who in turn have inspired the Icelandic people during the country’s long history of hardships and up to its more affluent present. This volume extends knowledge of Icelandic literature outside the country and encourages its inclusion in comparative studies of literatures across national and linguistic boundaries.

(20071001) ... Read more

4. A History of Norwegian Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature)
Hardcover: 435 Pages (1993-05-01)
list price: US$60.00 -- used & new: US$39.99
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Asin: 0803233175
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Long under the cultural domination of Denmark and the political hegemony of Sweden, Norway first defined itself through its literature and continues to do so to our day. A History of Norwegian Literature reviews the complex role literature has played in Norway since runic times. Beginning with rock carvings five millennia old, Norwegian literature first came to flower with the Norse poets of the ninth century, who chronicled the heroism of Viking explorers and conquerers.

The authors describe the subsequent progression of Norwegian literature through the middle ages and the baroque to Ludvig Holberg and the age of enlightenment, and from thence to the cultural debates of the nineteenth century, the dramas of Ibsen, the psychological novels of Sigurd Hoel, the modernist poetry of the 1950s and 1960s, and the postmodernism of the present. The works of Nobel Prize winners Sigrid Undset, Knut Hamsun, and Bjornstjerne Bjornson are covered in some detail, and separate chapters are devoted to children's literature and women writers in Norwegian literature.



Like other volumes in A History of Scandinavian Literatures; A History of Norwegian Literature views the literature of Norway not only as part of an interrelated Scandinavian tradition but as part of world literature. A comparative approach is used throughout, and social and cultural history feature prominently. Contributors to Volume 2 include leading scholars James E. Knirk, Kathleen Stokker, Harald Naess, James McFarlane, William Mishler, Jan I. Sjåvik, Margaret O'Leary, and Faith Ingwersen.

... Read more

5. The Angel House (Series B: English Translations of Works of Scandinavian Literature)
by Kerstin Ekman
Paperback: 388 Pages (2002-11-29)
list price: US$24.95 -- used & new: US$20.34
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1870041518
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Editorial Review

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The Angel House is the third novel in the celebrated Swedish novelist Kerstin Ekman's popular quartet of novels she wrote between 1974 and 1983. The women are now free from the hard physical tasks of the earlier novels, but no less trapped in the grinding repetition of factory jobs, repressive unions, and domestic chores in the isolation of their new homes. A male hierarchy still dominates the town; time is ruled by financial imperatives, council chairman's gavels, factory whistles, and military orders. She sets the remnants of a more organic timescale, governed by the slow evolution of women's bodies, the nurture of informal networks, and the unhurried cycles of trees and fruit bushes in old gardens. Winner of the Bernard Shaw Prize for Swedish Translation in 2003 (given every three years). ... Read more


6. From Baltic Shores (Series B: English Translations of Works of Scandinavian Literature)
by Christopher Moseley
 Paperback: 264 Pages (1995-03-01)
list price: US$24.95 -- used & new: US$24.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1870041259
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A linguistic tour de force"" - The Guardian. The harsh climate and often harsh economic conditions of the countries that fringe the shores of the Baltic Sea (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) provide a framework for lives of fierce independence and self-reliance; yet the coldness can be softened by the warmth of trust and dissipated by invigorating fantasy. ""Reading these tales after a steady diet of American post-modernists makes you feel as if you are paging your way slowly back into more vital times."" - Harvard Review. ""Elegant....This book is not only a good read, but a valuable contribution to the unity and diversity of the contemporary short story in the world."" - World Literature Today. Most of the authors whose works are featured in this broad selection are quite young and have not had works published in English translation. The comprehensive introduction to the authors places them in the context of their national literature. ... Read more


7. Adam's Diary (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)
by Knut Faldbakken
 Hardcover: 246 Pages (1987-12-01)
list price: US$25.00
Isbn: 0803219741
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Stream Of Consciousness Character Study
Adam's Diary is a brilliant work of art & a very entertaining book. In it, the "modern Adam" is a composite of thief, dog & prisoner. It's interesting that the composites are not merely psycological aspects of 3 different men, but they're actually what the men involved have become in reality. The book is broken up into 3 "diaries" for each man, & they all revolve around their relationship to one woman. Each portion is an interesting blend of "stream of consciousness" and psycological drama. The book becomes more & more compelling as you read on. Faldbakken is a guy hardly anybody in America has heard about, let alone read, & that's a real shame. He's a first-class writer & worthy blood-brother to Dostoyevsky. Get this! ... Read more


8. Sacrificial Smoke: Volume 3 in the Holme Trilogy (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)
by Jan Fridegard
 Paperback: 224 Pages (1990-08-01)
list price: US$9.95
Isbn: 0803268726
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars Exciting Conclusion To The Holme Trilogy
This is the final book in the Holme trilogy, a saga about a Viking thrall and his family. The book starts out with the aftermath of the destruction of the Christian church by Holme. He leads other thralls in an uprising for freedom, which ends in disaster. Once again, Holme is in trouble and must flee again. Holme goes to see the sympathetic king, and becomes his personal blacksmith. Holme's wife Ausi and daughter Tora move onto the king's settlement as well.

The family who originally owned Holme and Ausi is down to its last two surviving members - the old chieftains wife and their son. The old woman still wants vengence, meaning she wants to own Tora and Ausi once more. She's too afraid to want to own Holme again...he's far too dangerous. However, the son Svien has other ideas. He loves Tora and wants her to be his bride of her own free will. Svien works things out with Holme and things go well with Svien and Tora.

The clash between Christians and the worshippers of the old wooden gods comes to a head, and the battle between thralls and freemen continues. This is a very untraditional tale for the genre, written throughout with virtually no dialogue. Fridegard is a first-class storyteller, and infuses beautiful descriptions of wildlife and settings like a true master. The trilogy is a truly brilliant work of artistic literature. ... Read more


9. A History of Swedish Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature)
Hardcover: 587 Pages (1996-07-28)
list price: US$75.00 -- used & new: US$74.99
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0803247508
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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This volume traces Swedish literature from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to its honored place in world literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.



A comprehensive reference work, A History of Swedish Literature provides much more than names and dates. Sweden’s relative isolation in a remote corner of Europe put special stress on its language and literature to define national identity. In this volume nine scholars from Europe and America identify what is particular about Swedish literary culture as well as what makes it an integral part of European literature.



The volume views Swedish literature in its historical and social context and reflects on the concerns of each age. Although women authors are treated throughout the book, a chapter on women’s literature provides a salutary view of the gender issue in Swedish literature and the development of a feminist awareness. An additional chapter discusses children’s literature, a major Swedish cultural export.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, Comprehensive, Readable
This is one of the entries in the History of Scandinavian Literatures series which were, I believe, all published in the late 1990's.

Well-written and comprehensive, this can serve as a reference book or be consumed for its narrative content. I'm impressed by the breadth and depth on display here: 584 pp with a 27 p bibliography, a 43 p index, and a map.

As far as approach goes, here's some dustjacket blurbage...

This book "provides much more than names and dates. Sweden's relative isolation in a remote corner of Europe put special stress on its language and literature to define national identity. In this volume, nine scholars...identify what is particular about Swedish literary culture as well as what makes it an integral part of European literature."

"...views Swedish literature in its historical and social context and reflects on the concerns of each age." "An additional chapter discusses children's literature, a major Swedish cultural export."

TABLE OF CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS
The Middle Ages (Stephen A. Mitchell)
The Reformation and Sweden's Century as a Great Power (James Larson)
The Enlightenment and the Gustavian Age (James Massengale)
The Romantic Period (Bertil Nolan)
Liberalism, Realism, and the Modern Breakthrough (Birgitta Steene)
Into the 20th Century (Susan Brantly)
Literature After 1950 (Rochelle Wright)
Women Writers (Cheri Register)
Literature for Children and Young People (Maria Nikolajeva) ... Read more


10. Children's Island (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)
by P. C. Jersild
Paperback: 288 Pages (1986-11-01)
list price: US$25.00 -- used & new: US$14.88
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0803275676
Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars
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First published in Sweden in 1976, Children’s Island increased the popularity and critical acclaim of its author, P. C. Jersild. The novel, which has sold more than 400,000 copies in Sweden alone, has been translated into French, German, Dutch, and Czechoslovakian. A film was made out of it. The University of Nebraska Press is the first to make available in English a book in some ways reminiscent of J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.

Children’s Island is told from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy, Reine Larsson, who succeeds in not going to summer camp. Reine stays home because time is running out: puberty, sexual desire, adulthood are threatening to rob him of the energy he needs to find the answers to life’s dilemmas. He lulls his divorced mother into thinking he has gone to camp and confronts the task of supporting his love for McDonald’s hamburgers. What he finds in Stockholm—a kind of Children’s Island all its own—is a series of often hilarious adventures that help Jersild define contemporary society. It’s a society of isolation, violence, and aggressive commercialism, a society actually much more threatening to Reine’s psyche and well-being than the changes taking place within his own body. The revulsion he feels for his sexuality and that of others becomes symbolic of the alienation that defines the world Reine grows up in. Robert E. Bjork, general editor of the Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation series, calls Children’s Island “an extremely entertaining, extremely funny, and very serious book.”

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

3-0 out of 5 stars Sick, twisted and realistic
"Children's Island" is a Swedish novel by P.C. Jersild. I've only read the Swedish original, so I can't vouch for the American translation. This review, for all its worth, is therefore based on the original version.

I read "Children's Island" already as a kid. I shouldn't have. It's not a children's story. Rather, it's a sick, twisted and bizarre novel for adults. Even the contents are very "adult". My father mistook the novel for a children's story, probably because of its appealing and childish cover (different from the American cover pictured here). In fact, many of Jersild's novels are macabre, and border the surrealistic. There is also a streak of perverted sexuality running through the stories. "Children's Island" is no exception.

The main character of the novel, Reine, is a 10 year old kid. He runs away from home, and meets a string of absurd characters, most of them adults. For a while, he gets a job at a kind of undertakers' firm, run by an old refugee from the Soviet Union. He gets in trouble with his mother's lover, a real bum named Stig Utler who apparently hates kids. Later, Reine joins a hypocritical, left-wing theatre company, who talk a lot about "solidarity" and "anti-fascism" while actually being fiercely competitive. Reine also encounters a strange subculture known as "raggare", often seen as menacing when the novel was written (today, they are usually considered harmless and quite cool). The "raggare" are criminal and cultish, vandalize an amusement park and carry out a strange ritual during which they demolish Reine's bike. Reine then meets a bald-headed young woman and her old lover, who turns out to be crazy, and attempts to torture Reine in a gynaecologists' chair! During the final part of the story, our childhood hero meets a group of criminal boys at a boat in the Baltic Sea. They consider the clean-cut Reine to be "upper class" and steals his toy monkey (he eventually gets it back).

As for Reine himself, he is obsessed with perverse sexuality and frequently delusional. His private thoughts are more like those of a disturbed teenager or adult than those of a child. Reine comes across as a quite unsympathetic character, a kind of petty little sociopath who hates his parents, wants to become world dictator and believes that he is the only person in the universe. He is convinced that UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold is his real father. Despite being so young, Reine is also quite street smart and something of a survival artist. And no, he's definitely not upper class!

"Children's Island" was first published in 1976. The plot is set in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, during the summer of 1975. When I re-read the novel this week, I was struck by the fact that many places described in the novel still look exactly the same, 35 years later! Sweden seems to have been caught in a time warp. Does nothing ever change around here? Despite the absurd character of much of the storyline, "Children's Island" nevertheless gives a very realistic impression (at least to Swedish readers). I haven't bothered checking all of the places, but I know that the flower shop mentioned in the novel still exists (or at least there is a flower shop at exactly the same spot). Incidentally, Children's Island is also a real place, although not an actual island. It's a summer camp area north of Stockholm. (Poor Reine never reaches it.)

I'm not sure what the point of "Children's Island" really is. Is Reine Jersild's alter ego? Is he a symbol of wayward children? Is the story a critique of adult-children relationships in the post-Woodstock West? The novel ends with Reine apparently going back to school and his grey, everyday existence, making you wonder whether his odyssey through Stockholm was some kind of dream.

Honestly, I didn't get this one. But then, Jersild's other oeuvres are even stranger!

Stay tuned...
... Read more


11. Gender and Representation in the Films of Ingmar Bergman (Studies in Scandinavian Literature and Culture)
by Marilyn Johns Blackwell
Hardcover: 240 Pages (1997-06-22)
list price: US$75.00 -- used & new: US$67.50
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Asin: 1571130942
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This book covers the whole of Bergman's production, but concentrates in particular on close analyses of five of his major films: Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, The Silence, Persona, and Cries and Whispers. In addition to bringing post-modernist theoretical strategies to bear on the films, it offers a clear, current, pluralist feminist perspective. ... Read more


12. Cleng Peerson (The Library of Scandinavian literature)
by Alfred Hauge
 Hardcover: 800 Pages (1976-02)

Isbn: 0805781536
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13. Lucie (Series B: English Translations of Works of Scandinavian Literature)
by Amalie Skram
Paperback: 168 Pages (2002-04-05)
list price: US$21.95 -- used & new: US$21.94
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Asin: 1870041488
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In Lucie, written in 1888, shortly before Skram was incarcerated in an asylum for being out of her mind,"" she tells the story of a fallen woman, a dancing girl from Tivoli who is the mistress of the respectable bourgeois Theodor. He is so captivated by her that he charms and marries her and tries to turn her into a respectable woman. However, her lower-class origin and sexual experience creates an unbridgeable gulf between her and the other wives. Theodor's increasingly brutal attempts to quell her independent spirit push her into actions that lead by inevitable steps toward tragedy. The novel is set in Norway's capital city of Kristiania and Skram has an acute eye for detail and her realistic descriptions of degrading poverty call to mind the writings of her contemporary, Emile Zola.""A vividly detailed, subtly accusatory study of the catastrphic pairing of two irreconcilable opposites.""Kirkus Reviews ... Read more


14. A History of Finland's Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature)
 Hardcover: 877 Pages (1998-11-01)
list price: US$70.00
Isbn: 0803241895
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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The literature of Finland is bilingual, with lively and extensive traditions in both Finnish and Swedish. This history covers both literary traditions in detail. The volume’s first section, on Finnish-language literature, consists of a series of connected chapters by leading authorities within the field. It opens with a consideration of the folk literature in Finnish that flourished during the Middle Ages and then examines the more recent history of Finnish-language literature, with special emphasis placed on writings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The second part of the book provides an examination of Finland’s Swedish-language literature from the late fifteenth century through the early nineteenth century. Subsequent chapters trace developments in Finland’s Swedish-language literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A survey of children’s literature—from both the Finnish- and Swedish-language traditions—concludes this exceptionally thorough volume.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

5-0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Readable
This is one of the entries in the History of Scandinavian Literatures series which were, I believe, all published in the late 1990's.

Well-written and comprehensive, this can serve as a reference book or be consumed for its narrative content. I'm impressed by the breadth and depth on display here: 877 pp with a 70 p bibliography, a 43 p index, maps, and a glossary of Finnish and Swedish place names.

As far as approach goes, here's some dustjacket blurbage...

This book "covers both literary traditions [Finnish and Swedish] in detail. The volume's first section, on Finnish-language literature, consists of a series of connected chapters by leading authorities within the field. It opens with a consideration of the folk literature in Finnish that flourished during the Middle Ages and then examines the more recent history of Finnish-language literature, with special emphasis placed on writings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

"The second part of the book provides an examination of Finland's Swedish-language literature from the late fifteenth century through the early nineteenth century. Subsequent chapters trace developments in Finland's Swedish-language literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

"A survey of children's literature--from both the Finnish- and Swedish-language traditions--concludes this exceptionally thorough volume."

TABLE OF CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS
Finnish Oral Poetry, Kalevala and Kanteletar (Michael Branch)
New Beginnings Latin and Finnish (Kai Laitinen and George C. Schoolfield)
The Rise of Finnish-Language Literature (Kai Laitinen)
The Period of Independence (Markku Envall)
A Part of Sweden (George C. Schoolfield)
National Romanticism -- A Golden Age (George C. Schoolfield)
A Sense of Minority (George C. Schoolfield)
The Age of Modernism (George C. Schoolfield)
A Startling Growth (George C. Schoolfield)
Children's Literature (Maija Lehtonen) ... Read more


15. An Anthology Of Scandinavian Literature - From The Viking Period To The Twentieth Century - First Edition
by Hallberg - Editor Hallmundsson
 Paperback: Pages (1965-01-01)

Asin: B001CCZZEG
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16. The Roofing Ceremony and The Silver Lake (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)
by August Strindberg
Paperback: 118 Pages (2000-12-01)
list price: US$16.95 -- used & new: US$5.00
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 080329168X
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The Roofing Ceremony is a powerful, ultimately hopeful short novel that will revise the narrow view of August Strindberg as merely a misogynist and the gloomiest of Scandinavian writers. This novel has an inwardness, irreducibly and complexly human, that looks back to Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and forward to Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape.

Published in Sweden in 1906 and never before translated into English, The Roofing Ceremony (Taklagsöl) anticipates in its turbulent intensity the chamber plays Strindberg was soon to write. It is about a dying man, once an explorer but now a museum curator, who reviews his tumultuous life aloud as he drifts in and out of a morphine-induced sleep. Sometimes fragmentary, sometimes episodic, this impressionistic monologue builds up a vivid and nuanced portrait of the curator and his estranged wife, chronicling passionately but also humorously the descent of their marriage from island idyll into bitter comedy into tragic estrangement. Strindberg anticipated in this work the modern psychological novel and the technique of stream-of-consciousness.



A curious, brief narrative Strindberg meant to incorporate into The Roofing Ceremony but never did is also included in this book, as well as a story called The Silver Lake written in 1898, which also appears in English for the first time. A museum curator, summering on a Baltic island, seeks out a forbidden lake and shares its enchantment with his wife and children. But his marriage is doomed, and when he returns to the lake alone, its mystery turns sinister.

... Read more

17. Memoirs of a Dead Man (Series B: English Translations of Works of Scandinavian Literature)
by Hjalmar Bergman
Paperback: 352 Pages (2007-10-05)
list price: US$26.95 -- used & new: US$20.32
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 1870041658
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Bergman (1883-1931) is widely regarded as one of the foremost Swedish novelists of the twentieth century. Memoirs of a Dead Man follows the efforts of Jan Arnberg to escape the curse that has bound the fate of his family to that of the Arnfelts for generations. The earlier efforts of Jan's father to break free by moving to America foundered in a parody of consumer society and advertising slogans. Jan's own story culminates when he has to flee a small-town scandal in Sweden and ends up in a symbolic kingdom of death in Hamburg, where the family curse is played out once more, and where he comes to realize that abdication from free will is his only option. ... Read more


18. An Introduction to Scandinavian Literature: from the Earliest Time to Our Day
by Elias Bredsdorff
 Hardcover: 245 Pages (1970-03-30)
list price: US$36.95 -- used & new: US$36.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0837128498
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The significant developments as trends in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish literature are outlined and characterized in this history of Old Norse to modern Scandinavian writing. ... Read more


19. Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature
Hardcover: 808 Pages (1990-11-30)
list price: US$159.95 -- used & new: US$159.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: 0313214506
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"A heroic undertaking, this extremely useful encyclopedia covers the literatures of all five Nordic countries as well as Faroese, Inuit, and Sami. . . . is especially valuable in that it brings to light the sophistication and richness of literature in Finland and Iceland . . . highly recommended." Library Journal ... Read more


20. The Story of Borge (The Library of Scandinavian Literature, V. 23)
by H. C. Branner
 Hardcover: 196 Pages (1973-06)
list price: US$32.50
Isbn: 0805733590
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Customer Reviews (1)

4-0 out of 5 stars A Master at Child Psychological Insight
Although nothing can compare to the original Danish (Historien om Børge), even in this English translation, H. C. Branner's The Story of Børge remains a tour de force of psychological awareness. Rich with Branner'smetaphoric prose and deceptively elliptical writing, the novel traces youngBørge's self-discovery through his father's illness and death, a stint withaging relatives, his return to his mother and an ultimate epiphany (for us,the readers) about destiny. Through a number of haunting short stories andsome excellent novels, H. C. Branner disclosed an uncanny understanding ofhuman frailty in all ages and sexes. Branner's prose is oftenexpressionistic in a truly visual sense, moving the subjective to theforefront. Mostly, however, this is simply a masterwork of child/adultpoint of view, with Branner's narrator walking that thin and precariousline between childhood discovery and adult reflection. Had more ofBranner's work been translated, he would have become world famous. ... Read more


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