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The Snake Pit

The Master of Hestviken, Vol. 2

Part of Master of Hestviken

Author Sigrid Undset
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Paperback
$18.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Nov 29, 1994 | 240 Pages | 9780679755548
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In the second novel of her powerful saga The Master of Hestviken, Sigrid Undset turns the magnificent landscape of thirteenth-century Norway into the backdrop for a brilliant and unsparing portrait of marriage. Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, lovers when they were barely in childhood, are beginning a new life, but in Ingunn's past lies the shame of an illegitimate child and in Olav's past there is murder. The guilt they carry may prove destructive. In conveying both the emotional immediacy of Olav and Ingunn's love and the epic sweep of their story, The Snake Pit is a masterly re-creation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution.
Sigrid Undset is a major figure in early-twentieth-century literature. A Norwegian born in Denmark in 1881, she worked with the Norwegian underground during the Second World War, fled to Sweden in 1940, and later came to the United States. She is the author of many works of fiction as well as several books for young readers and a number of nonfiction titles. Her novels encompass a variety of settings and time periods, ranging from medieval romances such as the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy—generally considered to be her masterwork—and The Master of Hestviken tetralogy to modern novels such as The Winding Road, Ida Elisabeth, and The Faithful Wife. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Sigrid Undset died in 1949. View titles by Sigrid Undset

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In the second novel of her powerful saga The Master of Hestviken, Sigrid Undset turns the magnificent landscape of thirteenth-century Norway into the backdrop for a brilliant and unsparing portrait of marriage. Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, lovers when they were barely in childhood, are beginning a new life, but in Ingunn's past lies the shame of an illegitimate child and in Olav's past there is murder. The guilt they carry may prove destructive. In conveying both the emotional immediacy of Olav and Ingunn's love and the epic sweep of their story, The Snake Pit is a masterly re-creation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution.

Author

Sigrid Undset is a major figure in early-twentieth-century literature. A Norwegian born in Denmark in 1881, she worked with the Norwegian underground during the Second World War, fled to Sweden in 1940, and later came to the United States. She is the author of many works of fiction as well as several books for young readers and a number of nonfiction titles. Her novels encompass a variety of settings and time periods, ranging from medieval romances such as the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy—generally considered to be her masterwork—and The Master of Hestviken tetralogy to modern novels such as The Winding Road, Ida Elisabeth, and The Faithful Wife. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Sigrid Undset died in 1949. View titles by Sigrid Undset

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