Nichols does a good job of bringing out all the different aspects of her work and life.

But obviously she was much more than a novelist. So her literary genius was widely acknowledged, although her Catholic conversion was not well understood.ĬWR: If people in the English-speaking world know about Sigrid Undset at all, usually it’s because of Kristin Lavransdatter. And she was already a Catholic when she wrote The Master of Hestviken. And when she did become a Catholic, she suffered misunderstanding and ostracization, in a certain sense.īut her literary genius was so great that she won the Nobel prize in 1928 for her combined efforts on two huge works, Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken. She was raised in an intellectual family: her father was a university professor, and even though he’d been raised as a Norwegian Protestant, he was not a practicing or devout man. Norway had been majority Protestant for some time, and she was not raised in a Catholic family.

And this particular book of her life–people who have read widely are now starting to say that it’s the best thing in English they’ve seen on her.ĬWR: Was it normal for an intellectual in Norway in her era to become Catholic, or was that a little unusual?ĭudro: Oh, that was very unusual. Some people consider Kristin Lavransdatter to be the greatest Catholic novel of the twentieth century. She’s a great writer whether you’re Catholic or not, but for Catholics, her whole story is particularly interesting. That’s just serendipity though it wasn’t planned that way.īut to answer the question, “Why is Sigrid Undset important?”: she’s one of the greatest twentieth-century novelists, period, and she just happened to become a Catholic when her career was taking off. Vivian Dudro: The simple answer to why it was written is because the author wanted to write it! Aidan Nichols is a Dominican, scholar, and big fan of Sigrid Undset, and he just felt a desire to write it.Īs far as the timing goes, one of Undset’s big historical novels– The Master of Hestviken–is being re-translated, so maybe people will be introduced to her work through that and then want to find out more about her. Sigrid Undset: Reader of Hearts, a new biography and study of Undset by Aidan Nichols, O.P, published by Ignatius Press, sheds light on the remarkable breadth of Undset’s thought.ĬWR spoke with Vivian Dudro, Senior Editor at Ignatius Press, to discuss the new book and Undset’s significance as a Catholic convert, novelist, polemicist, and underappreciated intellectual of modern times.ĬWR: Why was this book written? Why should someone read this book, and why now? But she wrote much more than that epic work of historical fiction.

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) is most famous for her award-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.

Sigrid undset reader of hearts