Novel
Shyness and Dignity
Genanse og verdighet
Dag Solstad · 1994
Synopsis
Elias Rukla, a literature teacher in an Oslo high school, in his fifties, explains one Monday in October a character from Ibsen's The Wild Duck to indifferent pupils. On the way out, his umbrella refuses to open: he loses his temper, breaks it, insults a pupil who has nothing to do with it, and understands at once that his life has just tipped over. Walking home, he goes back over his student years, his friendship with the brilliant philosopher Johan Corneliussen and his marriage to Eva Linde, the latter's former companion.
Context
The novel appeared in 1994 from Oktober. The Complete Review reports a mixed reception: James Wood, in The New Yorker, sees in it a deeply human book, Paul Binding a courageous study of loneliness, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung judged its manner repetitive. Sverre Lyngstad translated it into English for Graywolf in 2006; the book does not exist in French, where two other novels by the author have appeared.
Who it is for
A short novel, translated into English but not into French, whose action takes place in a single day and the rest in memories.
Prizes and reception
One of the two books that the Norwegian literature promotion agency chose in 2025 for its tribute to the author, for a scene that has become emblematic.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.