Iceland's Bell
Author : Halldor Laxness
Publisher : Vintage
Release Date : 2007-12-18
ISBN 10 : 9780307426314
Pages : 448 pages
File Format : PDF, EPUB, TEXT, KINDLE or MOBI
Rating : 4.2/5 (319 users download)
Download Iceland's Bell book PDF by Halldor Laxness and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes grim, sometimes uproarious, and always captivating, Iceland’s Bell by Nobel Laureate Halldór Laxness is at once an updating of the traditional Icelandic saga and a caustic social satire. At the close of the 17th century, Iceland is an oppressed Danish colony, suffering under extreme poverty, famine, and plague. A farmer and accused cord-thief named Jon Hreggvidsson makes a bawdy joke about the Danish king and soon after finds himself a fugitive charged with the murder of the king’s hangman. In the years that follow, the hapless but resilient rogue Hreggvidsson becomes a pawn entangled in political and personal conflicts playing out on a far grander scale. Chief among these is the star-crossed love affair between Snaefridur, known as “Iceland’s Sun,” a beautiful, headstrong young noblewoman, and Arnas Arnaeus, the king’s antiquarian, an aristocrat whose worldly manner conceals a fierce devotion to his downtrodden countrymen. As their personal struggle plays itself out on an international stage, Iceland’s Bell creates a Dickensian canvas of heroism and venality, violence and tragedy, charged with narrative enchantment on every page.