The Story of Gösta Berling
Selma Lagerlof’s debut swept away the sober realism of its day and announced a wholly original voice. Its hero, Gosta Berling, is a brilliant young Lutheran minister defrocked for drunkenness and rescued from despair by the formidable mistress of Ekeby manor. There he joins a company of penniless, high-spirited cavaliers who, for one wild year, seize control of the great estate on the shores of Lake Fryken. Set in the Varmland of the 1820s, the book unfolds as a chain of loosely linked adventures brimming with romance, folklore, reckless feasting, and flashes of the supernatural. Passionate and headlong, it made Lagerlof’s name and remains a landmark of Swedish literature. Free to read as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940) was a Swedish writer and teacher whose storytelling blended folklore, faith, and vivid landscape. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, she remains one of Sweden’s most cherished authors, known best for this book and Gosta Berling’s Saga.
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