The Story of Gösta Berling
Selma Lagerlöf
Read by Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
"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 the 19th Century 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.
(Summary from the foreword by Pauline Bancroft Flach) (15 hr 50 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Enjoyable and fascinating saga
AnitaJ
I read this months ago and felt it should be rated. Lars Rolander is one of my favorite readers. His Swedish pronunciation of Y's and J's sometimes gives me a chuckle, but other than that he is usually easy to understand for this American ear. I was tempted to give up after a few chapters because this well-written saga required a bit more attention than my brain wanted to give, but I stuck with it and was not disappointed. (Oh, and Wikipedia's cheat-sheet list of characters helped!)
The Story of Gösta Berling
TheBookworm
How to describe The Story of Gösta Berling... It's long, rich, and highly textured. Lagerlöf's prose is spare to the point of bleakness. Rather like the Swedish landscape in winter. Gösta is an enigmatic character. Flawed, inconsistent, irresponsible, but strangely magnetic. I could go on but am starting to sound like a thesaurus. This is a great work of literature read in English by a Swede whose pronunciation adds to the charm. Tak så mycket Lars! TheBookworm (Manchester, UK, and briefly Uppsala universitet)
A LibriVox Listener
Great story. Great narration. Only downside was the layer of noise in the background. Definitely still listenable and enjoyable though.
recommended by my better half. it's a nice story.
A LibriVox Listener
Magestic
Rubén Manuel
A really great novel and excellent reading.