Four Stories

Book excerpt: "Four Stories offers honest, uncontrived portrayals of everyday life in early twentieth-century Norway. In Selma Brøter, as a spinster becomes involved in the love affair of her two coworkers, Undset draws a powerful, heartrending contrast between her delusion and their bliss. In Simonsen, an aged clerk gains support from his son and daughter-in-law, but learns it could come at a steep price. A housekeeper finds happiness (and love), in Miss Smith-Tellefesen, until a sudden change results in the loss of everything she has found. In Thodolf, a childless sailor’s wife adopts a baby boy. The sudden appearance of the boy’s birth mother sets off a series of events with an affecting conclusion. Marked with Undset’s distinctive compassionate insight into her characters, Four Stories profoundly captures the oscillation between contentment and sadness which is part and parcel of every human life."--