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Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940)

Author of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

498+ Works 6,682 Members 150 Reviews 37 Favorited

About the Author

Selma Lagerlöf, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1909, was the first woman to be elected a member of the Swedish Academy. Her first novel, The Story of Gosta Berling (1891), assured her position as Sweden's greatest storyteller. She retold the folk tales of her native province, Varmland, in an show more original and poetic prose. As a woman writer, Lagerlöf gained a reputation as a naive purveyor of native traditions, but she herself compared writing a novel to solving a mathematical problem. Her artistry entails making her stories seem simple, but they are told with great attention to symbolism, psychology, and narrative technique. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906) is a delightful fantasy written to teach children about Swedish geography, but it has found an international audience. Her third novel and masterpiece, Jerusalem (1901--02), the story of farmers from Dalarna who follow their faith to the Holy City, was widely praised for its insights into the lives of peasants searching for a spiritual ideal. During World War II, Lagerlöf helped many German artists and intellectuals escape the Nazis, even donating her gold Nobel Prize medal to a benefit fund to help Finland. She died of a stroke on March 16, 1940. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Selma Lagerlöf - photo edited by Pieter Kuiper

Series

Works by Selma Lagerlöf

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906) — Author — 1,321 copies
The Saga of Gösta Berling (1891) 1,204 copies
Jerusalem (1901) 367 copies
The Emperor of Portugallia (1914) 337 copies
The Treasure (1903) 165 copies
Christ Legends (1964) 163 copies
From a Swedish Homestead (1889) 135 copies
The Löwensköld Ring (1925) 133 copies
Memories of Marbacka (1922) 116 copies
The Phantom Carriage (1912) 93 copies
Invisible Links (1894) 82 copies
The Holy Night (1993) 77 copies
Anna Svärd (1928) 77 copies
The Miracles Of Antichrist (1989) 70 copies
Jerusalem II (1918) 66 copies
Jerusalem I (1927) 66 copies
Troll och människor (1915) 65 copies
Charlotte Löwensköld (1925) 63 copies
Liljecronas hem (1911) 46 copies
The Outcast (1918) 39 copies
Körkarlen : Bannlyst (1978) 38 copies
The Changeling (1986) 24 copies
Die schönsten Legenden (1978) 15 copies
Nils Holgersson (1991) 10 copies
Gösta Berlings saga. B.2 (1965) 9 copies
What the Shepherd Saw (2014) 9 copies
Gösta Berlings Saga 1 (2014) 8 copies
Frid på jorden (2013) 8 copies
Fire julefortellinger (2017) 7 copies
Spökhanden (2012) 7 copies
Sakari Topelius 7 copies
L'Anneau du pêcheur (1987) 7 copies
Els Ingmarsson (1918) 6 copies
Sprookjes en sagen (1987) 6 copies
Tjänsteanden (2013) 6 copies
Œuvres romanesques (2014) 6 copies
The silver mine (2017) 5 copies
Charlotte Löwensköld (2022) 5 copies
Dödskallen (2013) 5 copies
Legender, berättade (2019) 5 copies
El carreter (2017) 4 copies
O Anel dos Löwenskölds (2017) 4 copies
Letters from Jerusalem (2000) 4 copies
Weihnachtsgeschichten (2018) 4 copies
Dunungen (2012) 3 copies
Zachris Topelius (1920) 3 copies
Cudowna podróż / T. 1 (1986) 3 copies
Nils Nolgersson (1991) 3 copies
Legenden om julrosorna (2021) 3 copies
Il violino del pazzo (2023) 3 copies
Sagor och berättelser (1984) 3 copies
Contos Lendários (2011) 3 copies
Skrifter 3 copies
Trollmusik 3 copies
Les reines de Kungahälla (2013) 3 copies
Från skilda tider II (2019) 3 copies
El Niño Duende 2 copies
Mårbackasviten (2019) 2 copies
Liebesgeschichten (2008) 2 copies
Erzählungen 2 copies
Bandito (2022) 2 copies
Drottningar i kungahälla (2014) 2 copies
Generosidad de corazón (1942) 2 copies
Die Lichtflamme 2 copies
Devochka iz Morbakki (2013) 2 copies
Gösta Berlingin taru. 1 (1965) 2 copies
Selma Lagerlöf forteller (1995) 2 copies
Nils Holgersson (1997) 2 copies
Kristuslegender (1999) 2 copies
Dockteaterspel 2 copies
Robin Redbreast (1996) 2 copies
Bortbytingen: Noveller (2012) 2 copies
Mårbacka-trilogien (2013) 2 copies
Legenden om juleroserne (2003) 2 copies
Tarinoita 1 copy
Selma Lagerlöf (2009) 1 copy
MÅRBACKA (1922) 1 copy
Jeruzalem (2013) 1 copy
Petter Nord 1 copy
Fortellinger 1 copy
Sagen und Legenden (2015) 1 copy
Oud en Nieuw 1 copy
Podzim 1 copy
Jerusalem II 1 copy
Jerusalem I 1 copy
Maldición 1 copy
Nils Holgersson (2016) 1 copy
The Treasure 1 copy
Sel pühal ööl (2004) 1 copy
Blago (2015) 1 copy
Påskkärringen (2020) 1 copy
EN JULEGJEST (2017) 1 copy
Elsa 1 copy
Legenden om fru Lucia (2000) 1 copy
Karr und Graufell (1955) 1 copy
Bortbytingen 1 copy
Vonken 1 copy
Den hellige natten (2022) 1 copy
Opere 1 copy
LENDARIOS 1 copy
Nordic Tales (2004) 1 copy
Helga 1 copy
Skiftingen (1975) 1 copy
The Rattrap 1 copy
Die Mausefalle (2010) 1 copy
Julelegender 1 copy
Astrid 1 copy
Cudowna podróż. T. 2 (2022) 1 copy
Cudowna podróż. T. 1 (2022) 1 copy

Associated Works

A World of Great Stories (1947) 260 copies
The New Junior Classics Volume 03: Myths and Legends (1938) — Contributor — 237 copies
Stories to Remember {complete} (1956) — Contributor — 181 copies
Stories to Remember, Volume I (1956) — Contributor — 147 copies
Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old (2002) — Contributor — 112 copies
The Fantastic Imagination II (1978) — Contributor — 96 copies
Great Stories by Nobel Prize Winners (1959) — Contributor — 77 copies
Easter Stories: Classic Tales for the Holy Season (1656) — Contributor — 76 copies
World's Great Adventure Stories (1929) — Contributor — 75 copies
Women and Fiction: Volume 2 (1978) — Contributor — 73 copies
The Easter Book of Legends and Stories (1947) — Contributor — 34 copies
The Seas of God: Great Stories of the Human Spirit (1944) — Contributor — 25 copies
The Animals' Christmas (1944) — Contributor — 25 copies
Echo: Scandinavian Stories about Girls (2000) — Contributor — 15 copies
Visions and Imaginations: Classic Fantasy Fiction (2005) — Contributor — 13 copies
Trees: A Celebration (1989) — Contributor — 13 copies
Meesters der Zweedse vertelkunst — Author, some editions — 10 copies
Dangerous Ladies (1992) — Contributor — 8 copies
Los Premios Nobel de Literatura, v.1 — Contributor — 7 copies
The Word Lives On: A Treasury of Spiritual Fiction (1951) — Contributor — 4 copies
Modern Short Stories — Contributor — 3 copies
Karvatassujen jäljillä : Satuja eläimistä (1996) — Contributor — 2 copies
Stories for girls — Contributor — 1 copy
Kleine Bettlektüre für treue Pommern (1985) — Author — 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Lagerlöf, Selma
Legal name
Lagerlöf, Selma Ottilia Lovisa
Other names
Лагерлёф, Сельма
Birthdate
1858-11-20
Date of death
1940-03-16
Burial location
Sunne
Gender
female
Nationality
Sweden
Birthplace
Östra Ämtervik, Värmland, Sweden
Place of death
Östra Ämtervik, Värmland, Sweden
Places of residence
Mårbacka, Östra Ämtervik, Värmland, Sweden
Stockholm, Sweden
Landskrona, Sweden
Education
Högre lärarinneseminariet, Stockholm, Sweden
Occupations
novelist
short story writer
teacher
memoirist
Relationships
Olander, Valborg (friend)
Elkan, Sophie (friend)
Tegnér, Esaias (Her grandfather, Daniel Lagerlöf was his cousin)
Sachs, Nelly (friend)
Organizations
Swedish Academy
Awards and honors
Nobel Prize (Literature, 1909)
Short biography
Selma Lagerlöf was born in Östra Emterwik in the province of Värmland, western Sweden, and raised at Mårbacka, the family's estate there. Her parents were Erik Gustav Lagerlöf and his wife Louise Wallroth. She had five siblings. An early illness left her lame in both legs for a while, but she recovered and later said she had a happy childhood. She began writing poetry at an early age. She was educated at home, and in 1881 went to Stockholm to train as a teacher. In 1885, she took a job at a girls' high school in Landskrona, where she wrote her first novel, Gösta Berlings Saga (1891). The book went unnoticed at the time but later became her most popular, and played a part in the Swedish Romantic revival of the 1890s. In 1895, she won a scholarship from the Swedish Academy and gave up teaching to devote herself to her writing. After a visit to Italy, she published Antikrists mirakler (The Miracles of the Antichrist, 1897). With her close friend Sophie Elkan, she took a trip to Egypt and Palestine in 1899 that inspired her book Jerusalem (two volumes, 1901–02), her first big hit, which established her as one of the leading Swedish novelists of her generation. Other works included the children's geography book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, 1906). In 1909, Lagerlöf became the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. World War I disturbed her deeply, and she wrote little until publishing her memoirs Mårbacka (1922), Ett barns memoarer (Memories of My Childhood, 1930), and Dagbok för Selma Lagerlöf (The Diary of Selma Lagerlöf 1932). She also produced a trilogy of historical novels set in Värmland: Löwensköldska ringen (The Ring of the Löwenskölds, 1925), Charlotte Löwensköld (1925), and Anna Svärd (1928). She was deeply attached to her childhood home Mårbacka, which was sold after her father’s death, and used her Nobel Prize money to buy it back. She was also a friend of the German-Jewish writer Nelly Sachs, and helped her escape the Nazis to Sweden.

Members

Discussions

Group Read, May 2014: Gosta Berlings Saga in 1001 Books to read before you die (May 2014)

Reviews

Reason read: January 2024 botm Reading 1001. Author is winner of Nobel Prize for Literature, in fact she is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. This work was a collection of sagas, or folktales. I think sagas might be a common form of literature in the Scandinavian countries. Iceland is famous for their sagas. This one is Swedish. Gosta Berling is a defrock clergy. He got into drink and then he became a cavalier which sounds like a bunch of men who drink and carouse but in general mean no harm. The stories are interconnected and that is what makes it a novel but it really does have a plot. It may have symbols, motifs, etc, but no real plot, no rising action, etc. The land is a part of the story. The culture is interesting. I enjoyed listening to the reader on Librovox because he had that Scandinavian accent. Fund to hear the words but also funny when I heard him pronounce “fatigue” as fa-ta-gue. The whole book was read by the same reader. Something that doesn’t always happen with Librovox. It was a so so read for me. Took up way too much time.… (more)
 
Flagged
Kristelh | 31 other reviews | Jan 17, 2024 |
Dreadful. Author's name anagrams to "llama-free slog" and while I don't think there are any llamas in this book, I can't say for sure because I Did Not Finish.
½
 
Flagged
yarb | 31 other reviews | Jan 4, 2024 |
This is my first experience with Lagerlöf and I’m not disappointed.
 
Flagged
Deni_Weeks | 5 other reviews | Sep 16, 2023 |
Black & white illustrations. Library has 2 copies (?)
 
Flagged
MichaelLibrary | Aug 13, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
498
Also by
34
Members
6,682
Popularity
#3,661
Rating
3.9
Reviews
150
ISBNs
1,159
Languages
28
Favorited
37

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