Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berlings saga

Jennifer Watson (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh)

Ed. by Susan Brantly, University of Wisconsin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.6: Swedish Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

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Literature Topic

Dates

First circulation or publication 1891

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Sweden (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

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In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize for Literature, where her debut novel Gösta Berlings saga (1891) was described as a work of “original character”, and “rapturous beauty”. Today that same novel is considered by many to be the breakthrough of New Romanticism in Scandinavia. Appearing in 1891, it took a few years for the novel to be recognized, but through the internationally-esteemed literary scholar and critic Georg Brandes, the novel finally received the attention of the world. Brandes enthusiastically reviewed the novel in Politiken, welcoming “the material’s surprising singularity and the originality of the presentation” as well as the narrative’s rhythmically fluid and lyric style

What Brandes did not know is that it took Lagerlöf years to discover the material for her debut work and then almost ten years for her to find...

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2101 words

Citation: Watson, Jennifer . "Gösta Berlings saga". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 January 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34362, accessed 14 December 2025.]

Selma Lagerlöf, Gösta Berlings saga

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