Halldór Laxness (1902–1998)
Author of Independent People
About the Author
When presenting the 1955 Nobel Prize to Laxness, the Swedish Academy of Letters cited "his vivid writing, which has renewed the Icelandic narrative art." Laxness has been by turns a Catholic convert, a socialist, and a _target of the radical press, some of whom accused Laxness of a class ambivalence show more the Saturday Review summarized this way: "Though Laxness came to believe that the novelist's best material is to be found in the proletariat, his rejection of middle-class concerns was never complete, and the ambiguity of his attitude toward the conflict of cultural values accounts for the mixture of humor and pathos that is characteristic of all his novels." Independent People (1934--35) was a bestseller in this country; Paradise Reclaimed Reclaimed (1960), based in part on Laxness's own experiences in the United States, is a novel about a nineteenth-century Icelandic farmer and his travels and experiences, culminating in his conversion to the Mormon church. Laxness owes much to the tradition of the sagas and writes with understated restraint, concentrating almost entirely on external details, from which he extracts the utmost in absurdity. An Atlantic writer found that The Fish Can Sing (1957), the adventures of a young man in 1900 who wants to be a singer, "simmers with an ironic, disrespectful mirth which gives unexpected dimensions to the themes of lost innocence and the nature of art." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Halldór Laxness
N.Tryggvadottir: Serenity and Power 6 copies
Gerska æfintýrið 5 copies
Ásta Sóllilja 4 copies
Þjóðhátíðarrolla 4 copies
Seiseijú, mikil ósköp 4 copies
Dagleið á fjöllum; greinar 4 copies
Fuglinn í fjörunni 3 copies
Heiman eg fór : sjálfsmynd œskumanns 3 copies
Napoleon Bonaparte 2 copies
Himlens skn̜hed 2 copies
Norðanstúlkan 2 copies
Yfirskygðir staðir ; ýmsar athuganir 2 copies
Drei Erzählungen 2 copies
Sommerlandets Slot 2 copies
Höll sumarlandsins 2 copies
Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval 2 copies
Silfurtúnglið, 2 copies
Fløjtespilleren - 4 Noveller 2 copies
De islandske sagaer og andre essays 2 copies
Við heygarðshornið 2 copies
Vettvangur dagsins 2 copies
Af skáldum 2 copies
Af menníngarástandi 2 copies
Straumrof 2 copies
Dagur í senn : ræða og rit 2 copies
Gjörníngabók 2 copies
Noveller 2 copies
Þættir 2 copies
Lesebuch 1 copy
Nína í krafti og birtu 1 copy
Romanzi. 1 copy
Menntaskólaljóð 1 copy
Världens ljus 1 copy
Piplekaren : noveller 1 copy
*ANY 1 copy
O întîmplare la Reykjavik 1 copy
Thjohatidarrolla 1 copy
Heimsljos I-II 1 copy
Thu Vinvidur Hreini 1 copy
Laxdæla Saga 1 copy
Úa : Leikrit 1 copy
Og árin líða 1 copy
Fegurð Heimsins 1 copy
Snaefridur Isalndssol 1 copy
Ásmundur Sveinsson 1 copy
Utsaga 1 copy
Opere 1 copy
Islandsk saga 1 copy
Frie menn : Første del 1 copy
Hús Skáldsins 1 copy
Fish can sing, The 1 copy
Associated Works
The Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic (2007) — Contributor — 128 copies, 7 reviews
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought - Volume 11, Number 2 (Summer 1978) (1978) — Illustrator — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Laxness, Halldór
- Legal name
- Guthdjonsson, Halldór (birth)
- Other names
- Laxness, Halldór Kiljan
- Birthdate
- 1902-04-23
- Date of death
- 1998-02-08
- Burial location
- Mosfellskirkjugarður Mosfellsbæ, Mosfellsbaer, Höfuðborgarsvæði, Iceland
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Iceland
- Country (for map)
- Iceland
- Birthplace
- Reykjavík, Danish Iceland
- Place of death
- Reykjavík, Iceland
- Cause of death
- Alzheimer's disease
- Places of residence
- Mosfellssveit, Iceland
- Education
- Reykjavík Lyceum
- Occupations
- novelist
screenwriter
playwright - Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (Literature, 1955)
World Peace Council Literary Prize (1952)
Sonning Prize (1969) - Short biography
- Halldor Laxness, an Icelandic author, received world-wide recognition after being awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received this coveted award "for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland." By 1948 he had received from literary scholars from around the world 25 nominations for the Nobel candidacy. As of 2021, he is the only Nobel Prize recipient from Iceland. During his writing career, he authored more than 60 works including novels, poems, plays, essays, short stories, memoirs, and travel books.
Members
Discussions
July 2015: Halldor Laxness in Monthly Author Reads (July 2015)
Group Read, June 2015: Independent People in 1001 Books to read before you die (June 2015)
Group Read of Independent People by Halldór Laxness in Club Read 2014 (April 2014)
Ligiloj: eo.Wikipedia - epo in Esperanto! (March 2012)
Reviews
Overall, I felt much like I did after watching one of those European art films of the 80s. It was all interesting and I enjoyed it but there was so much going on that I was missing. In what I am guessing is early 20th century Iceland, lfgrimur lives in a boarding house run by his grandparents, who are most likely not his grandparents. There are many vignettes until we finally find our way to story of local boy made good, the famous singer who has left Iceland to tour the world but occasionally comes back and never sings there. I think there is both humour and pathos in all this but a great deal went completely over my head. It was a fine book to read but maybe I should go back and read that introduction and figure out what really happened.… (more)
This is the first of Laxness' books that I've read. Written in the mid-1930s, it is an epic story of the struggles of an Icelandic family in the early 20th century. The author seems to have collapsed history à la Thomas Hardy so that his novel might have had its beginnings centuries ago with frequent mentions of medieval Icelandic literature and pre-Christian religion, but it ends during the tragedy of the Great Depression as the plot becomes reminiscent of John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis. (Just as those Socialist writers won the Nobel Prize in literature, so did Laxness in the mid-50s.) The darkness of the tale is relieved by the author's sense of humor and his insight into his characters as expressed in the dialogue.
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When one is unmarried, one must tell people to shut up in roundabout fashion.… (more)
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When one is unmarried, one must tell people to shut up in roundabout fashion.… (more)
In the early 1900s, Bjartur lived in a sod house he called Summerhouses, and he owed no debt after 19 years raising sheep and paying off the land. Bjartur valued nothing more than being debt-free (& therefore being an independent man) and his sheep. He begrudged anyone and anything threatening either one, at the expense of his enduring family. His stubbornness cost him family members’ lives and it seemed the losses didn’t affect him, until his daughter Asta Sollilja, his “flower,” re-enters his life. I found Bjartur very frustrating. While sometimes his actions were understandable, most of the time it felt like they cost him and his family so much…keeping them in unimaginable poverty. But what great insight about the country of Iceland, since it was written somewhat close in time (1934-35) to the fictional story’s setting.… (more)
Lists
Country Life (1)
Allie's Wishlist (1)
A Novel Cure (2)
Favourite Books (1)
1940s (1)
Arctic novels (1)
to get (1)
Reading Globally (1)
1930s (1)
Magic Realism (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 114
- Also by
- 5
- Members
- 7,163
- Popularity
- #3,424
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 216
- ISBNs
- 329
- Languages
- 20
- Favorited
- 48
Bjartur rejected the dead evil spirits who occupy the gruesome opening of the book.
Unfortunately, he rigidly embraced their cruelty to both people and animals,
a trait inherited by his eldest son with terrifying consequences and surprisingly not
early recognized by the father as an 'inside job.'
Bjartur's driving force is Work With Financial Independence which he believes will lead Iceland to Freedom.
The wild scene of his wedding night gets even worse with mild Rosa murdering an ewe.
His odd and often strangely stupid decisions result in waiting until "his" daughter is nearly dead from want of milk.
Thank the fates for a compassionate and protective dog!
Unwelcome is killing puppies - why included with so many other evils...
murdering the calf - and then the beloved cow, whose loss kills his 2nd wife...?
Coffee makes an appearance as unforgettable as any character!
As welcome are the fantasies and life story of Little Nonni and his Grandma.
Plot is interrupted by way too long discussions of new Co-ops vs Traditional payments.… (more)