Rating: 
Summary: A trilogy that grows on you
Review: It took me three tries before I was able to get through the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. On my third, successful, attempt, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the second two books. The first book is my least favorite of the three, probably because Kristin's fatalism, so believable when she is unmarried and "shamed", and during her later life when she is forced to confront so many trials, doesn't make sense (to me at least) when she is a happy and beautiful teenager of good family, with a doting father, etc., etc. The second two books were wonderful: well-written, good characterization, good plot. Through all three books I was struck by Undset's eye for tiny details. (The only one that comes to mind right now is when she is a little girl and her father is encouraging her to eat by pinching bred into the shape of horses, putting a piece of meat on their back for the rider, and trotting them across his leg to her mouth.) It took me a while to get into the Kristin books, but when I did, I liked them a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: One of those few books in a lifetime of reading
Review: It was with undiluted pleasure that I saw that "Kristin" was finally being published again after a generation of neglect.What can be truly said? That I first read the book when I was 12 (in 1968!) and have reread it countless times since? That to dip in again resurrects a state of mind that conjures a bleakness of snow-bleached fields and the goddess of a flower-strewn meadow? "Kristin" shows how material reality can be transcended by the spiritual, how moral values are warped despite good intentions, and how time can purify and resolve even the most tragic circumstance. In one scene of "Kristin", for example, she cares for her former fiancé, now her dying brother-in-law. Although they have had close contact throughout the years, she is made to realize just how much this man has quietly sacrificed and suffered for her sake. The sometimes crude details of his final illness only add poignancy and texture to the heartbreak of losing! a more than true, yet not quite appreciated friend. Her "penance" in lovingly caring for his now bloated and decaying body as his soul feels its way clear to show at last its true feelings combines to form a unique montage. Although an unrequited lover, Simon has truly loved. It is he who wins through dying well and Kristin who loses by realizing too late what exactly he had meant to her. Superficially, "Kristin" can be difficult as the language has almost the sparceness of a history text and is reminiscent of the required reading of bygone sagas, dry and lacking in the florid passion of description to which we are now so accustomed. But as the details build and the light of psychological insight begins to highlight inner feelings, the tale becomes impossible to relinquish. Once read, never forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Universal and Real, A Great Book
Review: Kristen Lavransdatter is a book I would run back into a burning house to save. I agree with Allison Moss that you can read and re-read this book periodically over a long life, recognizing in it new things about life according to your experience as you grow and become a broader-gauged, wiser person. It is universal -- while cast as a specific, historically interesting character, Kristen is Every Person. It is real; I recognize real issues, errors, and struggles of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and middle age in it. Notwithstanding the story's entertaining setting long ago and far away, it is applicable to the search of modern people everywhere for hope and meaning. Kristen's lifetime evolution from self-absorption to spirituality is moving, as is her development into a truly heroic character, not by performing any epic task, but by becoming a fully-developed, compassionate human being. This is a story in which those with "eyes" to see, regardless of gender, race or religion, can see ourselves, our personal histories and our problems. We are provoked to think again about the importance of childhood experience by Kristen's maintenance of essential decency and dignity in the face of the pushes and pulls of a crass and craven world. It is wonderful that the story brings at the end the possibility of redemption, or at least peace, a possibility the story shows we all share no matter how privileged or awful our life has been. As an aside, everyone should be aware that a movie of the story was made during the 1990's, though I can't recall whether it was the first book or the whole trilogy. It was produced by Liv Ullman.
Rating:
Summary: Universal and Real, A Great Book
Review: Kristen Lavransdatter is a book I would run back into a burning house to save. I agree with Allison Moss that you can read and re-read this book periodically over a long life, recognizing in it new things about life according to your experience as you grow and become a broader-gauged, wiser person. It is universal -- while cast as a specific, historically interesting character, Kristen is Every Person. It is real; I recognize real issues, errors, and struggles of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and middle age in it. Notwithstanding the story's entertaining setting long ago and far away, it is applicable to the search of modern people everywhere for hope and meaning. Kristen's lifetime evolution from self-absorption to spirituality is moving, as is her development into a truly heroic character, not by performing any epic task, but by becoming a fully-developed, compassionate human being. This is a story in which those with "eyes" to see, regardless of gender, race or religion, can see ourselves, our personal histories and our problems. We are provoked to think again about the importance of childhood experience by Kristen's maintenance of essential decency and dignity in the face of the pushes and pulls of a crass and craven world. It is wonderful that the story brings at the end the possibility of redemption, or at least peace, a possibility the story shows we all share no matter how privileged or awful our life has been. As an aside, everyone should be aware that a movie of the story was made during the 1990's, though I can't recall whether it was the first book or the whole trilogy. It was produced by Liv Ullman.
Rating:
Summary: Kristin Lavransdatter- a neglected commentary on women
Review: Kristen Lavransdatter is more than a historical novel. It is a social commentary of the state of women. Kristen endures many of the same oppressive restrictions women live with today. She is sexually assault, but she is blamed for this. Her fiance has a trist (for which he suffers no remorse), while she is hounded for hers. Sigrid Undset outlines a strong woman's life, and moving accounts her constant efforts to find her own place in the world. Undset was ahead of her time as she discusses sex, virginity, assault, and equality.
Rating:
Summary: the dramatic saga of a medieval housewife
Review: Kristen Lavrensdattar is a long book that will take effort to read, but it is worth the effort on many levels. From a cultural standpoint, unlike many novels which place characters who think like modern Americans into a medieval setting, this novel presents characters with the medieval mind and placed into a complex cultural world quite different from the one we know. We learn many details: what do such people eat and drink, how is the family composed, what are the customs of marriage and family. But on another level, it is the universal story: of how an average woman feels and thinks. The main character is Kristen, a maid engaged to a local farmer, who falls in love with a handsome knight--and the drama that comes from that love.To marry the man she loves she opposed her father, and all of the society's customs: only to find that the marriage, although passionate, is a major cause of sorrow to her. But it is not merely a romance, but a story of how this passion and love grows and changes, encompassing her children, her religious beliefs, and her neighbors. Novels often present such a wide spectrum of themes in sagas of warriors and kings; this is more a "War and Peace" as seen by a complex woman.
Rating:
Summary: A timeless book for women and men.
Review: The book, Kristin Lavransdatter, was introduced to me 20 years ago when I was still a teenager. I read the first three or four chapters at that time and it always stuck with me as a book I must seek out again and complete. I finally made the time and I am so happy that I did. It is a wonderful book that in its essence is absolutely timeless. The experiences of Kristin were so easy to identify with - the relationships with parents, siblings, friends, husband and children - whether 14th century Scandinavia or present time, they are still the same. I would definately recommend this book and am thankful for the friend who introduced it to me many years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: simply awful
Review: The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy is quite possibly the worst series of books I have ever read. I'm not sure if it's just that the translation is terrible, or if the plot truly is *that* bad. Kristin is the most unhappy wretch, and the book is tedious to read. If you're reading this for the morality behind it, I suggest you watch half an hour of Jerry Springer for the same lesson.
Rating:
Summary: Kristin Lavransdatter, for me, is the story of Everywoman.
Review: The trilogy, Kristin Lavransdatter, tells the story of a Scandanavian woman who lived in the 1400s. The books--The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross--were written by Sigrid Undset and won the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Before I commit to read a book, I have to want to read it. For many years, my younger brother told me I should read Kristin Lavransdatter. My reaction: What is so great about some lady living in the middle of nowhere in the 1400s? Maybe later...on to the bestseller list.
Oops! I had to eat my words and credit little brother with a great pick! Not to mention a total surprise!
This is probably the best set of books I have ever read in a lifelong love affair with the written word. The story chronicles the life of a woman from youth to death. In essence, however, the author touches on the lives of all women who have loved a man or men, borne and reared children, and faced the lighthearted concerns of youth, the cares of everyday adult existence, and, finally, the contemplations of elderly wives, widows, and grandmothers. Kristin's joys and trials are familiar...universal. First, she defies her parents. (Sound familiar?) She makes choices, then lives with the consequences of her choices.
Sometimes the names and terms are confusing; but, ultimately, the story is well worth the effort. Try it! And remember, men, my brother, whose reading tastes revolve around Asimov, engineering, and the Civil War, pushed these volumes rather forcefully into my purview.
Rating:
Summary: The story of an ordinary woman who becomes a saint
Review: This is one of the great books of the Christian West. It is the story of a Swedish woman, married and with children, and how her response to the grace of God from childhood through adulthood to old age leads her to become a saint -- not a plastic one, but a flesh and blood one. I read this book once a year. It is perpetually marvelous.
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