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A review by sbeerens
Gösta Berlings Saga by Selma Lagerlöf
3.0
I found this a very hard book to form an opinion of. Lagerlöf's novel reminds me in no way of any other book I've ever read other than the old Icelandic sagas (hence the title, I suppose), but because it's written many centuries after that, its style also involves some lyrical elements and the story is set in another age.
I could appreciate Lagerlöf's courage and originality to publish a work like this in her day and age, but neither her writing style, nor the story by itself impressed me all that much. Selma Lagerlöf is one of the heroes of Swedish literature and this book is on every Swede's to-read list, but I don't entirely see where the fuss is coming from. This book just has too many characters, too many magical and mythical elements and is altogether too strangely put together for it to be "great".
It was an okay read, but not more than that.
I could appreciate Lagerlöf's courage and originality to publish a work like this in her day and age, but neither her writing style, nor the story by itself impressed me all that much. Selma Lagerlöf is one of the heroes of Swedish literature and this book is on every Swede's to-read list, but I don't entirely see where the fuss is coming from. This book just has too many characters, too many magical and mythical elements and is altogether too strangely put together for it to be "great".
It was an okay read, but not more than that.