Customer Reviews

Invisible Links

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Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) is one of the most well-known literary figures to have come out of Sweden, particularly after she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. As an avid supporter of causes such as women's rights and world peace, her thoughts and concerns are equally valid today.

Invisible Links is the first in a series of reprints of Selma Lagerlöf's works from Penfield Press. This collection of Lagerlöf's earlier short stories depicts the Swedish people, their lives and struggles, through glimpses into their souls. This updated edition is an abridged version of Pauline Bancroft Flach's 1899 translation, except "The Epitaph," that was included in the Swedish collection and translated by Jessie Brochner.

Selma Lagerlöf's storytelling includes elements of folk legends, fairy tales, and dreams. There are avenging ghosts and ghosts with good advice; there are tragic and happy endings. Her wise, compassionate voice narrates tales that are both dramatic and perplexing.

There are lighter stories. "Uncle Reuben" is a comic fable about the use of family legends to keep children in line. "Downie" is a love story set in springtime. And "Among the Climbing Roses" is about the insect friends to be found in the summer garden. Lively and intimate observations of the natural world are woven through all the stories, lending them an authentic beauty.

Lagerlöf explores the boundaries between illusion and reality, good and evil, the forces of life and destruction. Her stories do not come up with easy answers. What is certain is that the meanings human beings create, the links-or fetters-connecting them with the world, are nothing less than sacred. In Lagerlöf's fiction, this conviction becomes the lifeblood of the storyteller and reader alike.