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.


About the Author
Selma 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.