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A review by pturnbull
Marta Oulie by Tiina Nunnally, Sigrid Undset
4.0
Undset's first novel, this story is told in diary form. Marta describes the early days of her love affair with her husband Otto, the conditions in her marriage that make her unhappy, and Otto's illness and death from tuberculosis. Both Marta Oulie and Undset's better known character Kristen Lavransdatter bear heavy loads of guilt after engaging in sexual relationships outside of marriage. Unfortunately, Marta's guilt and unhappiness dominate much of the novel, making it more interesting as a relic of Undset's talent than as a story.
My favorite part was Marta's description of her honeymoon in early 20th century Swedish countryside, a forest loaded with flowers, berries, and a rushing creek. Here and there we get enticing glimpses of a middle class Swedish household of the time, but the family's fortunes fall with their father's illness. After Otto dies, Marta rejects marriage with her erstwhile paramour and determines to raise her family of four children on a school teacher's salary.
This book is similar in theme to Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen, and Ibsen's A Doll House, but Undset grants her heroine a way out of her misery, penurious though it may be. Marta's career means that she doesn't have to annihilate herself or abandon her children to become independent, a liberated point of view for the middle class in 1907.
My favorite part was Marta's description of her honeymoon in early 20th century Swedish countryside, a forest loaded with flowers, berries, and a rushing creek. Here and there we get enticing glimpses of a middle class Swedish household of the time, but the family's fortunes fall with their father's illness. After Otto dies, Marta rejects marriage with her erstwhile paramour and determines to raise her family of four children on a school teacher's salary.
This book is similar in theme to Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen, and Ibsen's A Doll House, but Undset grants her heroine a way out of her misery, penurious though it may be. Marta's career means that she doesn't have to annihilate herself or abandon her children to become independent, a liberated point of view for the middle class in 1907.