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dely_dd 's review for:
La saga di Gösta Berling
by Selma Lagerlöf
I didn't enjoy that much this book. The beginning was interesting and I thought that the book would have talked about Gösta Berling, a disavowed priest, and his adventures. It talked about him, but the whole story wasn't flowing: every chapter was a kind of short story. I may say that the book is made by many episodes with several characters, all equalliy important though Gösta Berling is the "gravity center". So some chapters are dedicated to Gösta's friends and these chapters didn't add anything to the story or the plot.
I also couldn't understand if Gösta Berling is a character of Swedish folktales or if those were stories the author had listened to as a child or if there is something real but with some magic added (witches etc.) or if it's only a piece of fiction.
The author perhaps wanted to add also some moral teachings? There is good vs evil but at the same time every character is both good and evil. Sadly this analysis is pretty cold, there aren't shades, so the characters don't seem real. The author underlines that sometimes bad can be done involuntarily and that bad things sometimes happen so that we can learn from it and improve as a person, but it isn't put well in the story and so sometimes I had the feeling to listen to a puerile moral teaching. Towards the end there were also too many religious concepts that I really couldn't stand. An example: who is the cause of a drought? A priest is the culprit because he was stingy and wasn't able to pray God as he should and so God punished the people with a drought. Meh.
As said, the characters don't seem real because some of their behaviors go from "very bad" to "too good" and often I had the feeling they were crazy.
There are some very good descriptions of the place and of the landscape, but sometimes the author becomes too aulic and solem so I didn't like these parts because it's a way of writing I don't like.
I also couldn't understand if Gösta Berling is a character of Swedish folktales or if those were stories the author had listened to as a child or if there is something real but with some magic added (witches etc.) or if it's only a piece of fiction.
The author perhaps wanted to add also some moral teachings? There is good vs evil but at the same time every character is both good and evil. Sadly this analysis is pretty cold, there aren't shades, so the characters don't seem real. The author underlines that sometimes bad can be done involuntarily and that bad things sometimes happen so that we can learn from it and improve as a person, but it isn't put well in the story and so sometimes I had the feeling to listen to a puerile moral teaching. Towards the end there were also too many religious concepts that I really couldn't stand. An example: who is the cause of a drought? A priest is the culprit because he was stingy and wasn't able to pray God as he should and so God punished the people with a drought. Meh.
As said, the characters don't seem real because some of their behaviors go from "very bad" to "too good" and often I had the feeling they were crazy.
There are some very good descriptions of the place and of the landscape, but sometimes the author becomes too aulic and solem so I didn't like these parts because it's a way of writing I don't like.