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Jerusalem Kindle Edition
Selma Lagerlöf (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMay 16, 2012
- File size314 KB
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About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B00846WJOC
- Publication date : May 16, 2012
- Language : English
- File size : 314 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 321 pages
- Lending : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #41,881 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #109 in European Literary Criticism
- Customer Reviews:
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Lagerlof's novel shows the villagers pursuing their needs and desires, using religion as a screen and an excuse for following whatever path is chosen, good or bad. Yet the judgment of the Lord will show itself in how a farm prospers, or in the violence of a thunder storm, or in the nature of a season, warm and mild or harsh and freezing, and the people then quake in fear of their own evilness. These are not people who do what they want under a label of "religious": they are angst and guilt ridden, unhappy most of the time, and always questioning themselves and their neighbors.
The villagers appeal to notions of fate and chance to help them decide on what to do and how to do it, and call on Providence to do what it is supposed to do best, provide. But who will decipher the messages from Providence, who will interpret the wishes of the Lord? A lay preacher comes to town and instigates a movement towards leaving Sweden, convincing many of the villagers to set out for Jerusalem and leave the past behind. We understand the reasons why such a plan appeals but we also foresee failure. The internal misery these people carry around cannot just be left at the border.
Lagerlof illustrates beautifully the problem inherent in religion, which is that all messages from heaven are interpreted here on earth by man, and according to man's own needs, desire, and fears. Will the lay preacher's religion be enough to save these villagers from Sweden and bring them some peace? The novel ends with children crying and whimpering, "We don't want to go to Jerusalem; we want to go home."
Lagerlof was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, awarded to her in 1909. She is most famous for her children's book "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" in which a rotten little boy is reformed through traveling with wild geese to spots of natural and wild beauty throughout Sweden. Her writings are known for their mix of realistic portrayals of life in rural Sweden and the fantasy necessary to escape the often harsh realities of such a life. Whether the fantasy is having a spiritual vision (at one point in Jerusalem, two men are on a bridge and the heavens open up to offer them a view of Paradise) or the imaginings of adventures in nature such as Nils has, relief is provided from the daily grind. Lagerlof is wonderful at illustrating the incredible beauty of rural Sweden in all seasons, leading me to think it was not escape from the physical landscape the people in her novels needed, but escape from the suffocating rules of small town life. Religion was one escape provided, but not necessarily the best escape: I think I'd prefer the wild adventures of Nils to the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
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It's a great read about another time and place.
I recently visited Jerusalem and the site these pilgrims settled in is now a hotel for all.
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Reviewed in India on November 26, 2018


