The Saga of Gosta Berling

The first new English translation in more than one hundred years of the Swedish Gone with the Wind

A Penguin Classic

In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Saga of Gösta Berling is her first and best-loved novel—and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo into stardom. A defrocked minister, Gösta Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. His defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell in this sweeping historical epic set against the backdrop of the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“At long last there is an excellent English translation of this important work by the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature.” —Swedish American Historical Quarterly

“At long last we have available to us a viable translation of one of the truly great works of Swedish literature sure to attract attention again to one of the region’s most significant authors and works.” —Scandinavian Studies

“Splendid . . . A fascinating peek into 19th-century Sweden, and . . . a cracking good read.” —Belletrista

“Every book of this great storyteller keeps on bringing us astonishing examples of her art. . . . No one in Europe can tell tales so unforgettably.” —Hermann Hesse

“Among [women novelists] of great talent or genius, none, in my opinion, is to be placed higher than Selma Lagerlöf.” —Marguerite YourcenarSelma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1909. She is known around the world for her classic children's book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson.

Paul Norlen (translator) was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prize in 2004. He lives in Seattle.

George C. Schoolfield (introducer) is a professor emeritus of German and Scandinavian literature at Yale.