Marta Oulie

A Novel of Betrayal

Nonfiction, History, Scandinavia, Fiction & Literature, Historical
Cover of the book Marta Oulie by Sigrid Undset, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sigrid Undset ISBN: 9781452942414
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: March 15, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Sigrid Undset
ISBN: 9781452942414
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: March 15, 2014
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English


“I have been unfaithful to my husband.” Marta Oulie’s opening line scandalized Norwegian readers in 1907. And yet, Sigrid Undset had a gift for depicting modern women “sympathetically but with merciless truthfulness,” as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. At the time she was one of the youngest recipients and only the third woman so honored. It was Undset’s honest story of a young woman’s love life—“the immoral kind,” as she herself bluntly put it—that made her first novel an instant sensation in Norway.

Marta Oulie, written in the form of a diary, intimately documents the inner life of a young woman disappointed and constrained by the conventions of marriage as she longs for an all-consuming passion. Set in Kristiania (now Oslo) at the beginning of the twentieth century, Undset’s book is an incomparable psychological portrait of a woman whose destiny is defined by the changing mores of her day—as she descends, inevitably, into an ever-darker reckoning. Remarkably, though Undset’s other works have attracted generations of readers, Marta Oulie has never before appeared in English translation. Tiina Nunnally, whose award-winning translation of Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter captured the author’s beautifully clear style, conveys the voice of Marta Oulie with all the stark poignancy of the original Norwegian.


“I have been unfaithful to my husband.” Marta Oulie’s opening line scandalized Norwegian readers in 1907. And yet, Sigrid Undset had a gift for depicting modern women “sympathetically but with merciless truthfulness,” as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. At the time she was one of the youngest recipients and only the third woman so honored. It was Undset’s honest story of a young woman’s love life—“the immoral kind,” as she herself bluntly put it—that made her first novel an instant sensation in Norway.

Marta Oulie, written in the form of a diary, intimately documents the inner life of a young woman disappointed and constrained by the conventions of marriage as she longs for an all-consuming passion. Set in Kristiania (now Oslo) at the beginning of the twentieth century, Undset’s book is an incomparable psychological portrait of a woman whose destiny is defined by the changing mores of her day—as she descends, inevitably, into an ever-darker reckoning. Remarkably, though Undset’s other works have attracted generations of readers, Marta Oulie has never before appeared in English translation. Tiina Nunnally, whose award-winning translation of Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter captured the author’s beautifully clear style, conveys the voice of Marta Oulie with all the stark poignancy of the original Norwegian.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Survival Schools by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Represent and Destroy by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Like a Loaded Weapon by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Living for Change by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book The Inconvenient Indian by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book The Price of Thirst by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Airport Urbanism by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions? by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Civil Rights Childhood by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book The Urban Revolution by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Blood Sugar by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book This Is Where I Am by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Mechademia 9 by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Model Immigrants and Undesirable Aliens by Sigrid Undset
Cover of the book Aesop's Anthropology by Sigrid Undset
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy