By Sigrid Undset Madame Dorthea is the story of a wife and mother of eighteenth-century Norway whose happiness and security is thrown into disarray by a sudden and unforeseeable tragedy. In keeping with the creative skill and genius with which she produced the magnificent Master of Hestviken tetralogy (concluded in 1936, three years before the appearance of Madame Dorthea), Undset produces vivid tableaus of the social mores and practices of the time, as well as of the untamed grandeur of her native landscapes, before which unfolds a frank portrayal of the human experience in all its baseness and beauty. With her, happiness had become an ingrained habit… She now thought she had borne happiness in her heart, sweetly and securely encased in her manifold wifely duties. Not without mortal pain could it be torn out of her being. Undset’s final novel, completed and published amid the outbreak of World War II, Madame Dorthea is a fitting conclusion to a visionary career in literature, replete as it is with the essential elements of her craft. In the words of one of Undset’s contemporaries, Madame Dorothea stands as “an authentic example of her art.” Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was a Norwegian novelist and essayist and a convert to the Catholic faith. In 1928, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A number of Undset’s books are available from Cluny, including the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, the Master of Hestviken tetralogy, and Saga of Saints. Paperback: 266pp. ISBN: 978-1950970667
