Jenny by Sigrid Undset

Jenny by Sigrid Undset

When Jenny was published in 1911, Undset found herself called immoral -- this is a side of the free, artistic life that the vast majority of citizens would rather not know. The novel tells the story of Jenny Winge, a talented Norwegian painter who goes to Rome to seek artistic inspiration but ultimately betrays her own ambitions and ideals. After falling into an affair with the married father of a would-be suitor, Jenny has a baby out-of- wedlock and decides to raise the child on her own. Undset's portrayal of a woman struggling toward independence and fulfillment is written with an unflinching, clear-eyed honesty that renders her story as compelling today as it was nearly a century ago.
This new translation by Tiina Nunnally captures the fresh, vivid style of Undset's writing and restores passages omitted from the only previous edition to appear in English, which was published in 1921. Most famous for her later, historical fiction set in Catholic, medieval Scandinavia, Undset stands revealed with Jenny, her first major novel, as an unsparing, compassionate, magnificent realist, the creator of works that are at once thoroughly modern and of enduring interest.
[Undset] was an uncommonly fine writer of fiction.-- The New York Times Book Review
Jenny is a stunningly atmospheric yet frank and searching drama about a young woman painter struggling to reconcile her need to make art with her longing for and fear of love. This brooding book can stand with the best of the moderns.-- Booklist

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), the eldest daughter of a Norwegian father and a Danish mother, was born in Denmark. Her family relocated to Oslo two years after her birth, where her father, a renowned archaeologist, lectured at the university. Undset was greatly influenced by her father's interest in the past. She was particularly enthralled by the dramatic Old Norse sagas she read as a kid, later remarking that her first encounter with them was the most significant turning point in my life. Mrs. Undset was Undset's first published piece.

Marta Oulie (1907) and The Good Era (1908), a collection of short stories set in modern circumstances, were critical and popular successes. Undset had the opportunity to explore the culture that had initially piqued her interest as a writer, and in Gunnar's Daughter (1909), she drew on her knowledge of Norwegian history and mythology, especially the Icelandic Sagas, to reconstruct medieval life with captivating immediacy. Undset married the painter Anders Castus Svarstad in 1912 and faced the difficult task of parenting three stepchildren and her own three children with no financial or emotional support from her husband over the next ten years. Her marriage was ended in 1924 after Undset converted to Catholicism, and she and her children eventually moved from Oslo to Lillehammer.

Undset's passion with the Middle Ages never waned, and she released The Wreath, the first volume of her most renowned work, Kristin Lavransdatter, in 1920, despite writing more modern novels, a collection of feminism essays, as well as numerous book reviews and newspaper articles. The Wife was published in 1921, while The Cross was published in 1922. Undset's first great medieval epic, the four-volume The Master of Hestviken (1925-1927), garnered her international renown, and her second great medieval epic, The Master of Hestviken (1925-1927), cemented her reputation as one of the twentieth century's best writers. She was only the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, at the age of 46, in 1928.

During the 1930s, Undset published numerous books, notably the autobiographical The Longest Years, as well as various collections of essays. Undset, an outspoken Nazi critic, fled Norway in 1940 as the Germans moved through the country, eventually settling in Brooklyn, New York. She returned to Norway in 1945 and received Norway's highest medal two years later for her exceptional literary achievement and dedication to the country. But, her years of exile had taken their toll, and she died of a stroke on June 10, 1949.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781513271934
ISBN 10	1513271938
Title	Jenny
Author	Sigrid Undset
Series	Mint Editions
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Mint Editions
Year published	2021-04-08
Number of pages	250
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable