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
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
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
This is the third book in a trilogy by Norwegian writer, Cora Sandel. The trilogy explores Alberta's life as she grows from a shy, young girl living in Northern Norway through her life in Paris during and after WWI as she struggles to become a writer.
In this last book of the trilogy, Alberta is at the French seaside with her son, Tot, and partner Sivert, a painter. Also with them are two other couples. They've all left for the seaside in an attempt to avoid the Influenza ravaging Paris. All show more three couples are unhappy, cheating on each other but more importantly all struggling to find their way both artistically and just as humans after experiencing the horrors of war. Alberta begins a relationship with one of the men staying with them, the married Pierre. Pierre and Alberta never have much of a physical relationship, but they connect over writing. Pierre was on track to be a successful author until the war changed him, physically taking away his hand and mentally his focus and desire to write. Alberta seems paralyzed by her own fears and insecurities and can't seem to do any work on her manuscript.
They all move back to Paris at the end of the summer, but things are not better. Sivert eventually decides to take Tot back to his parent's home in Norway and lets Alberta come along too. Though their relationship is over in all but name, they seem to both love Tot and as both are unwilling to leave him, they nominally stay together. When they return to Norway, things improve. Tot's health and confidence vastly improve. Sivert successfully returns to his way of painting (he had been experimenting unsuccessfully in cubism) and makes some sales. And Alberta finally begins writing again. Alberta finds the confidence to strike out on her own and make her way as a writer. The book ended with me convinced that she would make it.
Sandel's writing is beautifully subtle. The repercussions of the war on these young people permeates the book without being overly dissected. It's simply there. Alberta's struggles are internal and somehow undramatic and highly emotional at the same time. Most of all, Sandel's description of setting is wonderful, especially when she gets back to Norway. I also loved reading about Alberta's journey of writing her novel. Throughout the book there are ideas about what it is like to pour yourself into authoring a novel and I felt like I learned a lot about the writing process. I've read that Cora Sandel put many autobiographical elements in these novels and Alberta's writing journey struck me as the most authentic.
I've really loved discovering this trilogy. I highly recommend the first novel, Alberta and Jacob]to just about everyone, especially anyone interested in Scandinavian literature. It is amazingly evocative of Norway. I didn't love the second book, Alberta and Freedom, but this last in the trilogy wrapped everything up beautifully for me and made me so glad that I read all three books. I think that Cora Sandel is an author that deserves to be more widely read. show less
In this last book of the trilogy, Alberta is at the French seaside with her son, Tot, and partner Sivert, a painter. Also with them are two other couples. They've all left for the seaside in an attempt to avoid the Influenza ravaging Paris. All show more three couples are unhappy, cheating on each other but more importantly all struggling to find their way both artistically and just as humans after experiencing the horrors of war. Alberta begins a relationship with one of the men staying with them, the married Pierre. Pierre and Alberta never have much of a physical relationship, but they connect over writing. Pierre was on track to be a successful author until the war changed him, physically taking away his hand and mentally his focus and desire to write. Alberta seems paralyzed by her own fears and insecurities and can't seem to do any work on her manuscript.
They all move back to Paris at the end of the summer, but things are not better. Sivert eventually decides to take Tot back to his parent's home in Norway and lets Alberta come along too. Though their relationship is over in all but name, they seem to both love Tot and as both are unwilling to leave him, they nominally stay together. When they return to Norway, things improve. Tot's health and confidence vastly improve. Sivert successfully returns to his way of painting (he had been experimenting unsuccessfully in cubism) and makes some sales. And Alberta finally begins writing again. Alberta finds the confidence to strike out on her own and make her way as a writer. The book ended with me convinced that she would make it.
Sandel's writing is beautifully subtle. The repercussions of the war on these young people permeates the book without being overly dissected. It's simply there. Alberta's struggles are internal and somehow undramatic and highly emotional at the same time. Most of all, Sandel's description of setting is wonderful, especially when she gets back to Norway. I also loved reading about Alberta's journey of writing her novel. Throughout the book there are ideas about what it is like to pour yourself into authoring a novel and I felt like I learned a lot about the writing process. I've read that Cora Sandel put many autobiographical elements in these novels and Alberta's writing journey struck me as the most authentic.
I've really loved discovering this trilogy. I highly recommend the first novel, Alberta and Jacob]to just about everyone, especially anyone interested in Scandinavian literature. It is amazingly evocative of Norway. I didn't love the second book, Alberta and Freedom, but this last in the trilogy wrapped everything up beautifully for me and made me so glad that I read all three books. I think that Cora Sandel is an author that deserves to be more widely read. show less
When you're young and you're frustrated by your emotions, your inability to make the world work the way you think it should, life can seem unbearably unjust. You may even think of taking your life to end all this hurting, and even succeed at it, as did my own poor sister. But you may get a glimpse of the drabber, infinitely more hopeless lives of older, saddened and resigned people who despite all that, go "back to it" day after day, step by step, until it's ended, and realize that there it show more is, life, to be met full on and made the best of. That's what Alberta's life is, in the stiflingly patriarchal small-town society in which she exists in northern Norway. Insightful and moving. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 970
- Popularity
- #26,549
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 19
- ISBNs
- 101
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