Novel
Greeta ja hänen Herransa
Not translated into English
Arvid Järnefelt · 1925
Opening lines
Toisinaan, vaikka harvoin kyllä sattuu, että joku Uudenmaan lakeuksien ruotsalainen talonpoikaisperhe muuttaa asuinsijansa suomalaiseen ylämaahan, missä maanhinta voi olla alhaisempi ja talot ovat helpommin ostettavissa.
Sometimes, though it happens rarely enough, a Swedish peasant family from the plains of Uusimaa moves its home to the Finnish uplands, where land may be cheaper and farms easier to buy.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Anders and Greeta, a Swedish-speaking peasant family from the plains of Uusimaa, have settled in the Finnish highlands, where land costs less, on the farm of Koivikko, among the birch trees. The outside world draws closer to their corner of the forest; Helge takes over as head of the family, and the arrival of the young Maija, who ends up becoming the mistress of the farm, unsettles the household. Greeta, for her part, has her dreams and her secret plans, and sets out to fulfil them.
Context
It was published by Werner Söderström in Porvoo in 1925, in twenty chapters, and marked its author's return to the novel after a long silence. The book shows a family in crisis, caught between the demands of truth and justice and the realities of life. It was translated into Swedish, Estonian and Dutch, and into French by Jean-Louis Perret under the title Greeta et son seigneur, published by the éditions de la Toison d'or in 1943. The text has entered the public domain and can be read online on Project Gutenberg.
Who it is for
A novel in twenty chapters, in Finnish, available in French in a 1943 translation; the account of a peasant family, slow and moral.
Prizes and reception
It marks the author's return to the novel, before the family trilogy regarded as his most important work.