1000 Books Project 2025 - Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter

Project Backstory:

I picked up a copy of James Mustich's amazing 1000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life Changing List and upon looking through it, I realized it really is a well-rounded reading recommendation book. I was pleased to discover I have read quite a few of the books he lists, and that many of them are on my personal reading lists (and they are books I own). So, to ever expand my reading horizons, and include others in the journey, I decided to create a read-along challenge, or project, if you will.

The theme for this year...and it's an important theme given the current situation in our country (U.S.) in regards to women (one example - your body, my choice)...Honoring women: A woman's life saga.

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset is the work that formed the basis of Undset receiving the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded to her "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages." (Wikipedia source)

A passage from the 1000 Books' coverage of the book (page 817): 

A summary does not do justice to Undset's achievement, nor to the singularity of her central character, who maintains a riveting identity in the midst of her struggles with family, community, and convention. Next to Kristin Lavransdatter, Emma Bovary is bloodless. In her book, 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, Jane Smiley astutely describes Kristin's--and Undset's--originality:

Perhaps the biggest difference between Undset's protagonist and most other female protagonists is that she is never without work to do...Life is arduous in a way that is never true in novels about women of the middle and upper classes in France and England. Undset writes about work and weather and famine and accidents, illnesses, pregnancy, animals, and the natural world with immediacy and ease. Though Undset, too, explores the classic conflict between female virtue and female desire she sets it into the context of female usefulness.

I've been wanting to read this book for a long time. I hope you will join me.

Since we are starting on January 1st, I'm posting the reading schedule now. 

My edition: Abacus (January 1, 1995) - Paperback, 1072 pages.

Discussions will be posted here on the blog on the dates indicated in the schedule. Feel free to stop by the discussions any time. Post your thoughts in the comments, or share a link to a blog post.

The schedule does not include the notes section at the back of the book. The ending page in my edition is 1,047. We are reading according to each book of the original trilogy.

• January/February: The Bridal Wreath, pp 1 - 272
  Discussion post: February 28
• March/April/May: The Mistress of Husaby, pp 273 - 643
  Discussion post: May 31
• June/July/August: The Cross, pp 645 - 1047 (end)
  Discussion post: August 31

If you would like to join us, sign up by leaving a comment below (and a link, if you post about it on your blog or social media).