Marta Oulie: A Novel of Betrayal

by Sigrid Undset

Paperback, 2014

Status

Available

Description

" "I have been unfaithful to my husband." Marta Oulie's opening line scandalized Norwegian readers in 1907. And yet, Sigrid Undset had a gift for depicting modern women "sympathetically but with merciless truthfulness," as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. At the time she was one of the youngest recipients and only the third woman so honored. It was Undset's honest story of a young woman's love life--"the immoral kind," as she herself bluntly put it--that made her first novel an instant sensation in Norway.Marta Oulie, written in the form of a diary, intimately documents the inner life of a young woman disappointed and constrained by the conventions of marriage as she longs for an all-consuming passion. Set in Kristiania (now Oslo) at the beginning of the twentieth century, Undset's book is an incomparable psychological portrait of a woman whose destiny is defined by the changing mores of her day--as she descends, inevitably, into an ever-darker reckoning. Remarkably, though Undset's other works have attracted generations of readers, Marta Oulie has never before appeared in English translation. Tiina Nunnally, whose award-winning translation of Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter captured the author's beautifully clear style, conveys the voice of Marta Oulie with all the stark poignancy of the original Norwegian. "--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member c.archer
This is a short and emotional novel of a bored woman who betrays her husband with his friend and business partner and then lives with her guilt. Mart Oulie is an older book that has only recently been translated into English. The author won a Nobel Prize in 1928 for the title which was a
Show More
best-seller in her native Sweden. This book is written as the journal of the woman, Marta, and because of this displays an intimate look into her thoughts and feelings. Although the story takes place in the distant past and reflects a different era, I found it worth reading and evocative of the feelings at the heart of many women. The ending is bitter, and is perhaps a reflection of the time of the piece as well as the author's Norwegian life.
Because of its topic, I would recommend this book to other women. I think that they may best appreciate the emotion that the author brings out in Marta. It is not filled with action or adventure, and in fact it lacks much plot development other than the reflections of Marta. For certain though, it is a brief read and a window into the psyche of this guilt-ridden woman in the early years of the 20th century.
I thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
Show Less

Similar in this library

Page: 0.2618 seconds