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Loading... The Emigrants. Book I. (Transl.by Gustaf Lannestock). (original 1949; edition 1971)by Vilhelm(1898-1973) Moberg (Author)
Work InformationThe Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (1949)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Moberg was a prominent Swedish working-class writer, an autodidact who grew up on a small farm in SmÄland and made his name as a radical journalist, playwright and novelist who was ready to oppose all forms of authority (church, police, monarchy, Nazi Germany, ...) on behalf of ordinary people. The tetralogy The Emigrant Novels, of which this is the first book, tells the story of an extended family of farmers from SmÄland who emigrate to Minnesota in the 1850s. It was a major project which kept Moberg busy from 1945 to 1959, including some seven years of research in the US (he went back to Sweden for good in 1955, disgusted with McCarthyism and American religious conservatism). From the start, one of Moberg's main aims was to inform Swedish-Americans about how and why their ancestors came to the US, and he worked closely together with his American translator Gustav Lannestock, so that the English versions appeared soon after the Swedish originals. In this first volume, we meet the main characters, Karl-Oskar and his wife Kristina, who are trying to make a living farming on a few acres of poor land that is barely adequate to feed their family and pay the interest on their inherited debts, even in a good year. Needless to say, there are no good years in this book. Karl-Oskar's younger brother is a labourer on a more prosperous farm, where he is forced to submit to sustained physical abuse - the servant law gives labourers essentially no rights against their masters. And Karl-Oskar's uncle is a radical non-conformist preacher repeatedly punished by the priest and the law for following his "heretical" beliefs. For all of them, together with a few other local outcasts (a single mother forced to earn a living as a prostitute, a married man unable to divorce his detested wife, ...), the idea of selling up and going to America seems very attractive. But, of course, it isn't as easy as all that - physically or psychologically - to leave everything you know and set off over the edge of the map, even if there is rumoured to be a promised land there. Moberg tells us a lot about the hardships of the journey, first by cart over the border from SmÄland into Blekinge to get to the port of embarkation, then over the sea to New York on a small sailing ship, where we have to endure the usual quota of storms, doubts and diseases, and some attrition of the emigrant group. Moberg is very strong on indignation and social realism, and paints a convincing picture of what the life of his characters must have been like (obviously not so very different from the conditions in which he himself grew up 50 years later). But I didn't find it very easy to engage sympathetically with the characters - they all seemed to be more case-studies than real individuals. And the narrative march of deprivation and disaster was a bit too inevitable - it isn't easy to keep up your attention when you are always 95% certain of what is about to go wrong. So this is a worthwhile read, rather than an entertaining one. I'm not sure if I still have the courage to follow Karl-Oskar and Kristina through the many accidents and disappointments that are obviously going to face them over the course of the next three volumes. This is a truly powerful novel depicting the epic journey of the Nilsson family from their arid and rocky Swedish farmland to what they hope will be a new life in North America. The story starts with a description of the land itself, hopelessly in conflict with the people who work it. The courage and indefatigability of the farmers is told with epic simplicity and a complex picture of the social and political conditions of the era is built up. There are touching stories of the generations of farmers who seek a life for themselves in Sweden before Karl Oskar Nilsson decides that such a life is impossible and he must emigrate. He eventually persuades his long-suffering wife Kristina (a genuinely heroic figure herself throughout the novel) and the preparations are made for the journey. The simple hopes of this family and their young children are profoundly engaging as is their journey first to the port and then across the ocean. The Nilssons are accompanied by many neighbours, some of dubious morals from the perspective of the conservative Kristina, others showing the nature of oppression and injustice in Europe at the time. The powerfully presented section of the novel presenting the ocean voyage is almost too painful to read at times: Moberg manages to provide an extensive and detailed catalogue of the miseries of nineteenth century emigrant experience whilst sustaining genuine suspense and pathos. This is a very impressive and curiously little known book. no reviews | add a review
Considered one of Sweden's greatest 20th-century writers, Vilhelm Moberg created Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson to portray the joys and tragedies of daily life for early Swedish pioneers in America. His consistently faithful depiction of these humble people's lives is a major strength of the Emigrant Novels. Moberg's extensive research in the papers of Swedish emigrants in archival collections, including the Minnesota Historical Society, enabled him to incorporate many details of pioneer life. First published between 1949 and 1959 in Swedish, these four books were considered a single work by Moberg, who intended that they be read as documentary novels. These editions contain introductions written by Roger McKnight, Gustavus Adolphus College, and restore Moberg's bibliography not included in earlier English editions. Book 1 introduces Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson, their three young children, and eleven others who make up a resolute party of Swedes fleeing the poverty, religious persecution, and social oppression of Smćland in 1850. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.7372Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Swedish literature Swedish fiction 1900-1999 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I generationer har slĂ€kten levt och dött i den lilla byn i hjĂ€rtat av SmĂ„land. De har brukat samma jord och legat i samma sĂ€ng fram till den dagen dĂ„ den Ă€ldsta sonen tar över gĂ„rden för att kunna gifta sig och föra slĂ€kten vidare. Men i den hĂ€r generationen Ă€r det annorlunda. Ăldsta sonen Karl Oskar har alltid varit en bra bonde men det börjar bli trĂ„ngt med alla ungar och hans Ă„ldrande förĂ€ldrar i undantagsrummet. De har den jord de har och den rĂ€cker knappt för mat till hela familjen. NĂ€r deras Ă€ldsta flicka dör efter att ha smygĂ€tit gröt för att hennes mage inte klarade av sĂ„ mycket mat pĂ„ samma gĂ„ng inser Karl Oskar att han inte kan fortsĂ€tta att försörja sin familj pĂ„ den lilla jordplĂ€tt de har att bruka pĂ„ â inte om han inte vill se fler barn dö pĂ„ grund av svĂ€lt.
Samtidigt har hans yngre bror Robert stora planer om att en dag ge sig av frĂ„n det enda hem han nĂ„gonsin haft för att ta sig över Atlanten och finna lyckan i Amerika â ett land för de fria och Ă€rliga som Ă€r det nĂ€rmaste ett paradis man kan komma hĂ€r pĂ„ jorden. NĂ€r han fĂ„r reda pĂ„ att hans bror gĂ„r runt med samma tankar som han sjĂ€lv börjar planerna bli mer Ă€n bara en dröm. Men det visar sig snart att det kommer fler prövningar innan de sĂ€tter fötterna pĂ„ den amerikanska kontinenten.
Den enda riktiga erfarenhet jag hade av Utvandrarserien var ett försök att se filmen för flera Ă„r sedan tillsammans med min mor â och vi sĂ„g knappt fem minuter. Den var otroligt seg och för mig som har otroligt svĂ„rt att koncentrera mig sĂ„ var det nĂ€stan uteslutet att ens försöka igen. Av den anledningen var jag orolig att böckerna skulle vara likadana och jag sĂ„g framför mig hur jag skulle kĂ€mpa mig igenom alla fyra böcker med tĂ„rar rinnande nerför kinderna... men det var inte fallet. Utvandrarna Ă€r möjligtvis en av de mest underhĂ„llande böckerna jag har lĂ€st. KaraktĂ€rerna Ă€r underbara och komplexa â och har beter sig otrolig bisarrt ibland (det Ă€r mest Danjel jag tĂ€nker pĂ„ som Ă€r sĂ€ker pĂ„ att Jesus Kristus bor inom honom). De kĂ€nns otroligt Ă€kta och Ă€ven om de har Ă„sikter som jag inte kan hĂ„lla med om sĂ„ kĂ€nns det verkligen som att det Ă€r karaktĂ€rerna som har den uppfattningen, inte sjĂ€lva författaren. Det Ă€r sĂ„dan stor skillnad pĂ„ en bok som Ă€r sexistisk och pĂ„ karaktĂ€rer i en bok som Ă€r sexistiska. Moberg har gjort ett bra jobb med att lĂ„ta karaktĂ€rerna ha Ă„sikter och lĂ€mna ute sina egna Ă„sikter.
Nu Ă€r jag man och har absolut ingen rĂ€tt (eller lust) att tala för kvinnor nĂ€r det gĂ€ller sexism men i min Ă„sikt var manliga och kvinnliga karaktĂ€rer rĂ€tt jĂ€mstĂ€llda nĂ€r det gĂ€ller skrivandet â trots att de sjĂ€lvklart styrs av 1850-talets tĂ€nkande, vilket definitivt inte var det mest jĂ€mstĂ€llda. Men karaktĂ€rerna fĂ„r vara sig sjĂ€lva; och de varierar mycket. Som sagt, en del karaktĂ€rer Ă€r problematiska men de Ă€r det utan att boken Ă€r det. Det kĂ€ndes som en stor lĂ€ttnad eftersom boken var skriven i slutet av 40-talet; och den utspelar sig pĂ„ 1850-talet. DĂ€remot kĂ€nde jag mig vĂ€ldigt obekvĂ€m nĂ€r n-ordet anvĂ€ndes men jag förstĂ„r varför det Ă€r med dĂ€r â och jag vill bara utbilda dessa 1800-talskaraktĂ€rer.
Jag ser verkligen fram emot nÀsta del i denna bokserie (som jag för övrigt inhandlade idag... tillsammans med de andra tvÄ resterande delarna) för jag bryr mig verkligen om hur det gÄr för dessa karaktÀrer i den nya vÀrlden... och sedan Àr det en historisk novell om nybyggare. Jag Àr svag för sÄdant. Jag Àr svag för 1800-tals USA, vilket Àr rÀtt... bisarrt nÀr man tÀnker pÄ det. ( )