Novel
Downstream
Selambs
Sigfrid Siwertz · 1920
Synopsis
Selambshof, a dilapidated estate on the shore of a lake, near a Swedish town, at the end of the nineteenth century. One evening, Peter and Hedvig, the two eldest, hear a cry rise from their mother's room, while old Kristin, the only survivor from the time of the former master, tells them her stories; the little ones, Stellan, Laura and Tord, are already in bed. The father, Oskar Selamb, barely past fifty, is sinking; a neighbour, old Hermansson, becomes the children's guardian and has an estate manager appointed. The novel then follows the five children into adulthood, in their race for money.
Context
The novel was published in 1920 in two parts. It targets the mentality of the war profiteers, on whom it makes an uncompromising satire, and it has been reissued many times since. E. Classen translated it into English under the title Downstream; this translation is online at Project Gutenberg and at Standard Ebooks. Swedish television made a nine-episode series from it in 1979. It has not been translated into French.
Who it is for
A long novel in two parts, which can be read in Swedish or in English; the reader must accept following five lives over several decades.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's masterpiece, and as one of the finest critical portraits of the bourgeoisie in Sweden.
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