Cora Sandel (1880–1974)
Author of Alberta and Jacob
About the Author
Sandel's best-known work is an autobiographical trilogy---Alberta and Jacob (1926), Alberta and Freedom (1931), and Alberta Alone (1939), which describes with insight and honesty the coming to maturity of a small-town Norwegian girl. Trained as a painter, Sandel has an eye for telling detail. She show more is also an attentive student of human nature. Sandel's short stories often explore with great sympathy the lives of society's outcasts and underdogs. She is a masterful prose stylist of marvelous delicacy whose work rarely fails to move. Her insight into the psyches of women and artists is especially acute and justly praised. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(nor) Cora Sandel is a pseudonym for Sara Cecilia Gørvell Fabricius
Series
Works by Cora Sandel
Figurer på mørk bunn 7 copies
EN BLÅ SOFFA OCH ANDRA NOVELLER 4 copies
Carmen och Maja och andra noveller 2 copies
Dyr jeg har kjent 1 copy
O Alberte (trilogija) 1 copy
Associated Works
Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life (1997) — Contributor — 48 copies
Fotspår : noveller ur Sveriges radio P1:s serie Författarskap på fötter (2003) — Contributor — 5 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Fabricius, Sara Cecilie Margareta Görvell
Fabricius, Sara
Fabricius, Sara Cecilie Margareta Gjorwell - Birthdate
- 1880-12-20
- Date of death
- 1974-04-03
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- painter
writer
novelist - Awards and honors
- Gyldendals legat (1937)
Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1957) - Relationships
- Jönsson, Anders (ex-husband)
- Short biography
- Sara Fabricius was born in Kristiana (now Oslo), Norway and the family moved to Tromsø when she was 12. She started painting as a teenager and went to Paris, where she married the Swedish sculptor Anders Jönsson. In 1921, the couple moved to Sweden. Sara and her husband divorced and she won custody of their son. She was 46 years old when her debut novel, Alberte and Jakob, was published under the pen name Cora Sandel. It was the first volume of what was to become the largely autobiographical Alberta Trilogy.
- Nationality
- Norway
- Birthplace
- Oslo, Norway
- Places of residence
- Kristiania, Norway
Paris, France
Tromsø, Norway - Place of death
- Uppsala, Sweden
- Burial location
- Uppsala, Sweden
- Disambiguation notice
- Cora Sandel is a pseudonym for Sara Cecilia Gørvell Fabricius
- Associated Place (for map)
- Norway
Members
Reviews
There are some gems in here, set across quite a wide range of places and, to a lesser extent, times. The one that’s stuck with me ever since I read the book is Artist’s Christmas. It’s a detailed, atmospheric piece that evokes all the chill of winter and the misguided idealism of the bohemian lifestyle – with a vicious sting in the tail.
Some I inevitably found less successful, such as The Broad Versus the Narrow Outlook, in which a dispute between neighbours made a slightly clumsy show more metaphor for the Nazi occupation. On the other hand, I did find There’s A War On very moving – and a timely counter to the assumption that the Blitz was something that happened only to Britain.
This is by no means a comfortable read (and I would recommend skipping The Polar Bears or Two Cats in Paris and One in Florence if you’d rather not read about harm to animals) but I found it a worthwhile one, and am rather regretting letting it languish on my bookcase for so long. show less
Some I inevitably found less successful, such as The Broad Versus the Narrow Outlook, in which a dispute between neighbours made a slightly clumsy show more metaphor for the Nazi occupation. On the other hand, I did find There’s A War On very moving – and a timely counter to the assumption that the Blitz was something that happened only to Britain.
This is by no means a comfortable read (and I would recommend skipping The Polar Bears or Two Cats in Paris and One in Florence if you’d rather not read about harm to animals) but I found it a worthwhile one, and am rather regretting letting it languish on my bookcase for so long. show less
Alberta is a teenage girl living in the far north of Norway. She is painfully shy to the point of being practically mute both out in town and at home. She blushes at the drop of a hat and hides from everyone. Her exacting mother is constantly frustrated with her and her father is too preoccupied with his own money problems to take an interest in her. At the point we meet her, she is done with the schooling her parents can afford and supposed to be learning domestic skills like the other show more girls her age, something she is hopeless at. She has no desire to be a part of the community or find a husband. The only person she openly loves is her brother, Jacob, who escapes their town as a sailor after disappointing his parents’ hope that he will find a scholarly career.
Alberta is also cold – physically cold. She sneaks behind her mother’s back to drink more than her share of coffee – gulping down the scalding liquid for a moment of warmth. She sneaks coal when her mother is out to build a fire in her room. She runs as fast and hard as she can outside, hoping the physical activity will warm her up. It is all to no avail. The setting of northern Norway is a character in this book – the constant dark and cold of the winter and the round the clock sun in the summer that gives the only short bursts of warmth and with it brings a few characters Alberta’s age home from school in the south. Even with the people her age who try to be friendly to her, Alberta can’t manage to string together more than a few words.
With that bleak description and unsympathetic main character, you may be surprised to hear that I LOVED this book. It is the start of a trilogy about Alberta and I had wish-listed the next two books after reading about ten pages and then purchased them before finishing. I’m not sure what it was, but I just loved the writing and description. I also really liked the awkward Alberta. I certainly was never as shy to the extreme as she is, but I could sympathize with many of the feelings she has. She’s trapped in that age and circumstance where she’s not an adult yet but not a child either. She also has no interest in staying in her town but no vision for an alternative. I’m excited to have found another Norwegian author that I love and looking forward to the rest of this semi-autobiographical trilogy.
Original Publication Date: 1926
Author’s nationality: Norwegian
Original language: Norwegian, translated to English in 1962, trans. by Elizabeth Rokkan
Length: 220 pages
Rating: 5 stars show less
Alberta is also cold – physically cold. She sneaks behind her mother’s back to drink more than her share of coffee – gulping down the scalding liquid for a moment of warmth. She sneaks coal when her mother is out to build a fire in her room. She runs as fast and hard as she can outside, hoping the physical activity will warm her up. It is all to no avail. The setting of northern Norway is a character in this book – the constant dark and cold of the winter and the round the clock sun in the summer that gives the only short bursts of warmth and with it brings a few characters Alberta’s age home from school in the south. Even with the people her age who try to be friendly to her, Alberta can’t manage to string together more than a few words.
With that bleak description and unsympathetic main character, you may be surprised to hear that I LOVED this book. It is the start of a trilogy about Alberta and I had wish-listed the next two books after reading about ten pages and then purchased them before finishing. I’m not sure what it was, but I just loved the writing and description. I also really liked the awkward Alberta. I certainly was never as shy to the extreme as she is, but I could sympathize with many of the feelings she has. She’s trapped in that age and circumstance where she’s not an adult yet but not a child either. She also has no interest in staying in her town but no vision for an alternative. I’m excited to have found another Norwegian author that I love and looking forward to the rest of this semi-autobiographical trilogy.
Original Publication Date: 1926
Author’s nationality: Norwegian
Original language: Norwegian, translated to English in 1962, trans. by Elizabeth Rokkan
Length: 220 pages
Rating: 5 stars show less
Read during a trip to N Norway, which undoubtedly brings the dark, bleak world of the teenage 'heroine' to life.
I absolutely loved this book and the descriptions of Alberta's feelings as she struggles to survive in a middle class home under the eagle eye of disapproving, disappointed Mama. Her walks with Papa almost lead to meaningful conversation ...but not quite:
"She and Papa repeated the same words that they had repeated countless times before. They would turn back and go home, nothing show more had changed, everything was just as hopeless and just as oppressive."
And what does Alberta even want? "Not knowing brought unrest and a giddy sensation under her heart. She existed like a negative of herself." But despite the details being blurred, "She imagined somehere open, free, bathed in sunshine. And a throng of people, none of them her relatives, none of whom could criticize her appearance and character, and to whom she was not responsible for being other than herself."
But life goes on - the darkness, the intense cold, the poverty, the disapproval, whether she hangs back shyly or consorts with "the wrong sort." I adored it and am reading the second in the trilogy. show less
I absolutely loved this book and the descriptions of Alberta's feelings as she struggles to survive in a middle class home under the eagle eye of disapproving, disappointed Mama. Her walks with Papa almost lead to meaningful conversation ...but not quite:
"She and Papa repeated the same words that they had repeated countless times before. They would turn back and go home, nothing show more had changed, everything was just as hopeless and just as oppressive."
And what does Alberta even want? "Not knowing brought unrest and a giddy sensation under her heart. She existed like a negative of herself." But despite the details being blurred, "She imagined somehere open, free, bathed in sunshine. And a throng of people, none of them her relatives, none of whom could criticize her appearance and character, and to whom she was not responsible for being other than herself."
But life goes on - the darkness, the intense cold, the poverty, the disapproval, whether she hangs back shyly or consorts with "the wrong sort." I adored it and am reading the second in the trilogy. show less
"The person who has once taken life in the wrong way must finally accept life as it is"
By sally tarbox on 17 July 2016
Format: Paperback
Third in the Alberta trilogy: we were left at an exciting point in the second volume, where Alberta - in an unsatisfactory relationship and about to try to launch a literary career - finds herself pregnant.
This book takes up the story six years on. Alberta and Sivert are still - unhappily - together, with their young son, and sharing a holiday home in show more Brittany with friends: Liesel and Eliel and war-damaged author Pierre and his wife and child. The relationships are wonderfully portrayed - Alberta's fear and vulnerability as Sivert looks set to leave her and the boy; her growing attraction for Pierre, the only one who seems to take her writing seriously; her love and fear for her little son, who can tear her heart with an innocent comment...
Returning to their home in Paris, and finally back to Sivert's family home in Norway, Alberta's future remains uncertain. But we see her finally taking steps to protect herself from the apathetic lack of action which has previously characterized her nature...
After loving 'Alberta and Jacob', I was a tad less taken with 'Alberta and Freedom'. But in this volume the author writes superbly; it's at least as good as the first volume, and I can't recommend it enough. show less
By sally tarbox on 17 July 2016
Format: Paperback
Third in the Alberta trilogy: we were left at an exciting point in the second volume, where Alberta - in an unsatisfactory relationship and about to try to launch a literary career - finds herself pregnant.
This book takes up the story six years on. Alberta and Sivert are still - unhappily - together, with their young son, and sharing a holiday home in show more Brittany with friends: Liesel and Eliel and war-damaged author Pierre and his wife and child. The relationships are wonderfully portrayed - Alberta's fear and vulnerability as Sivert looks set to leave her and the boy; her growing attraction for Pierre, the only one who seems to take her writing seriously; her love and fear for her little son, who can tear her heart with an innocent comment...
Returning to their home in Paris, and finally back to Sivert's family home in Norway, Alberta's future remains uncertain. But we see her finally taking steps to protect herself from the apathetic lack of action which has previously characterized her nature...
After loving 'Alberta and Jacob', I was a tad less taken with 'Alberta and Freedom'. But in this volume the author writes superbly; it's at least as good as the first volume, and I can't recommend it enough. show less
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