Novel · A way to begin
Seven Brothers
Seitsemän veljestä
Aleksis Kivi · 1870
Opening lines
Jukolan talo, eteläisessä Hämeessä, seisoo erään mäen pohjaisella rinteellä, liki Toukolan kylää.
The Jukola farm, in southern Häme, stands on the northern slope of a hill, near the village of Toukola.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Seven brothers, sons of the Jukola farm left orphans, rough, quarrelsome and fond of drink, refuse to learn to read and end up turning the whole village against them. They leave the family farm for the solitude of the forest, where they must hunt, fell timber, find shelter for the winter and live together, through comic or unfortunate adventures, strange tales and old legends that they tell one another.
Context
The novel took ten years of work. It appeared in instalments in 1870; August Ahlqvist, the critic who then held sway, tore it to pieces, and the book edition was put off until 1873. It was long read as the story of a forest people's ascent towards civilisation; recent readings stress instead the plurality of its voices and the diversity of its literary models. The French translation by Jean-Louis Perret is published by Stock.
Who it is for
A comic and rough novel, with long forest scenes, and tales and legends embedded in the narrative.
Prizes and reception
Savaged on its publication, rehabilitated shortly after the author's death, it is the first great novel in Finnish; 10 October is the day of Finnish literature in Finland.