The Story of Gösta Berling

by Selma Lagerlöf

The Story of Gösta Berling

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The
Story of Gösta Berling

Translated from the Swedish of
Selma Lagerlöf
by
Pauline Bancroft Flach

Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1898

Copyright, 1898,
By Little, Brown, and Company.

All rights reserved.

University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.

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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

“The Story of Gösta Berling” was published in Sweden in 1894 and immediately brought its author into prominence.

The tales are founded on actual occurrences and depict the life in the province of Värmland at the beginning of this century. Värmland is a lonely tract in the southern part of Sweden, and has retained many of its old customs, while mining is the principal industry of its sparse population. It consists of great stretches of forest, sloping down to long, narrow lakes, connected by rivers.

Miss Lagerlöf has grown up in the midst of the wild legends of her country, and, deeply imbued with their spirit, interprets them with a living force all her own.

Her efforts have been materially encouraged by the Crown Prince of Sweden, and there is every reason to expect that her genius has not reached its fullest development.

Stockholm, May, 1898.

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CONTENTS

Chapter		Page
[INTRODUCTION:]
I	The Priest	[1]
II	The Beggar	[12]
[PART I]
I	The Landscape	[29]
II	Christmas Eve	[34]
III	Christmas Day	[49]
IV	Gösta Berling, Poet	[63]
V	La Cachucha	[79]
VI	The Ball at Ekeby	[84]
VII	The Old Vehicles	[106]
VIII	The Great Bear in Gurlitta Cliff	[122]
IX	The Auction at Björne	[138]
X	The Young Countess	[170]
XI	Ghost-Stories	[199]
XII	Ebba Dohna’s Story	[214]
XIII	Mamselle Marie	[236]
[PART II]
I	Cousin Christopher	[247]
II	The Paths of Life	[253]
III	Penitence	[268]
IV	The Iron from Ekeby	[280]
V	Lilliecrona’s Home	[291]
VI	The Witch of Dovre	[298]
VII	Midsummer	[304]
VIII	Madame Musica	[309]
IX	The Broby Clergyman	[315]
X	Patron Julius	[321]
XI	The Plaster Saints	[329]
XII	God’s Wayfarer	[337]
XIII	The Churchyard	[350]
XIV	Old Songs	[355]
XV	Death, the Deliverer	[367]
XVI	The Drought	[374]
XVII	The Child’s Mother	[386]
XVIII	Amor vincit Omnia	[396]
XIX	The Broom-Girl	[403]
XX	Kevenhüller	[417]
XXI	The Broby Fair	[429]
XXII	The Forest Cottage	[438]
XXIII	Margareta Celsing	[456]

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