Romanen utspelas på 1860- eller 1870-talet i Lagerlöfs hembygd i Värmland och handlar om torparen Jan i Skrolycka. Han älskar sin dotter över allt annat men när hon flyttar till Stockholm och aldrig hör av sig, sjunker han in i en drömvärld där hon är förnäm kejsarinna av Portugallien och han tror också att han är kejsare. Hela hans tillvaro domineras av tankarna på hennes återkomst och vad som då ska ske. I rollen som kejsare bosatt i den fattiga skogsbygden kan han ifrågasätta traktens sociala hierarkier: iförd sina kejserliga regalier sätter han sig längst fram i kyrkan, tar plats vid honnörsbordet på bjudningar och han försöker umgås med traktens godsägare.

A folksy tale of a poor peasant’s love for his daughter: set in rural Sweden or Denmark sometime in the mid 19the century. It has charm with elements of the supernatural and an atmosphere that drew this reader in gradually to agree that it was well worth reading. Published in 1914 by Selma Lagerlof a Swedish writer who was the first woman to win the nobel prize for literature back in 1909. She was awarded the prize for her lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterised her writings and all these elements are here in The Emperor of Portugallia.

Jan of Ruffluckcroft is a peasant farmer and we are introduced to him as he awaits the birth of his only child. It is a wet miserable day and Jan has been locked outside of his hut while the women attend to his wife, he bemoans his fate; working hard for the feudal lord just to make ends meet with no prospects and married to a local woman who he describes as ugly. At last he is let back inside to be presented with his daughter and suddenly his heart starts beating hard inside his chest and he now has something to live for. He names the child Glory Goldie Sunnyside and as she grows up the two become good friends and Jan relies on her increasingly for her intelligence and wit. The old feudal Lord is killed in an accident and the new owner of Jan’s house lands him with a bill he cannot pay. Glory Goldie now 17 years old says she will go to Copenhagen to earn the money. She catches the ferry and that is the last that the doting parents see of their beautiful daughter, she writes one letter and disappears, rumours come back to the village that she has ‘gone wrong’. Jan is devastated and invents for himself an alternative world where Glory Goldie has made her way in the world and she is the Emperess of Portugallia and Jan is the Emperor. This fantasy takes over his life in such a way that he enacts the airs and graces of an emperor in his village and is more or less given leave to do so by the villagers who grieve with him for his loss.

Village life and the characters within it are brilliantly conjured up in this novel. The hierarchy is well established from The Lord of Falla down to the peasant farmers and the vagabonds, but there is much goodwill and kindness in evidence and people generally get along with their life. Festivals, church services and other social events are captured with a sympathetic eye by Lagerlof with an underlying sense of humour and an air of mischief and mystery. Jan becomes an increasingly eccentric character, but one that can still live and work in a village where people can accept that such things can be so, especially as they are still in tune with folk legends and mysteries in a world that exists vaguely outside of the village community.

The homespun folksy philosophy of the first few chapters was a little saccharine for my taste, but as the story developed and the characters came to life I found myself ‘drawn in’. The novel seemed also to become a little darker, especially when Glory Goldie disappears. The feel good factor is laced with a mysterious undertone and when the novel reaches its climax I was totally in sympathy. The novel was translated in to English in 1916 and is easy to read and free on the Gutenberg Project 3.5 stars. ( )

3.5 ( )

A sad story about a man who loved his daughter so much that losing her drives him mad. ( )