The Saga of Gosta Berling

Name: Selma Lagerlof

Year Won: 1909

 Read: "The Saga of Gosta Berling"

 Original Language: Swedish

 Reason:  "in appreciation of the  lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings" 

About: The Saga of Gosta Berling follows Gosta Berling, a defrocked (for drinking, mostly) minister throughout the small Swedish town of Ekeby as he falls in love with random women (including a countess), and has adventures.

It's beautifully written, with wonderful turns of phrases. Also, while it's set in more or less modern times (for Lagerlof), there's a lot of magic in it. It's borderline magical realism and feels almost like one stepped into another world. It's lovely and intriguing and it's not hard to see how it became wildly popular.

It also won Lagerlof the first Nobel literature laureate awarded to a woman.

What I Liked: It's fun. There are a lot of adventures in the town, lots of wonderfully colorful characters, and tons of great descriptions. This is one of those reads that's just enjoyable, with rarely a chapter that isn't deeply entertaining.

What I Disliked: There's not a lot of plot to this book, other than "Gosta comes into town, has affairs with a few women, and eventually gets married". This isn't a terrible thing, but it also kept me from being glued to the book, eager to see what happens next. (Because in most cases, it doesn't much matter.) Certain scenes would grip me, but then they'd be over and, while the next one would also grip me, I didn't desperately want to make it to the next bit.

Should it have won a Nobel: Probably. It's a beautifully written book and is well worth reading. It holds up well even today.

 Next up: The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck (Again, Paul von Heyse isn't in my local library)