Svante Niilonpoika Sture and His Contemporaries I: The Angel of Death

Stjernström, Louise, 1812-1907Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 721K words
Chapters: 73

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Svante Niilonpoika Sture ja hänen aikalaisensa I: Kuolon enkeli by StjernströmAuthor: Stjernström, Louise, 1812-1907,Language: Finnish, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Aug 7, 2017

Editor's review

This Finnish historical novel revolves around Svante Niilonpoika Sture and his contemporaries, and its subtitle "The Angel of Death" signals the somber, dramatic tone of the narrative. The author, Louise Stjernström, was active in the nineteenth century, and the work reflects the nation-and-homeland storytelling and ensemble characterization common to historical fiction of that era; it is suitable as further reading for those interested in Nordic history or the early development of Finnish literature. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, its main value lies in accessibility: readers can freely encounter a Finnish-language original rarely seen in the Chinese market and observe how nineteenth-century Finnish historical narrative handled late medieval figures and events. It is best read as a literary text informed by historical material, attending both to the characters' fates and to the narrator's way of evaluating historical figures. Because it is in Finnish and dates from a distant era, the barrier to entry is high, making it more suitable for readers with some Finnish or those willing to read slowly with reference tools.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with basic Finnish reading ability who want to encounter nineteenth-century Finnish historical fiction
Scholars and students of Nordic historical literature or the history of Finnish literature
Enthusiasts of the Sture family and late medieval Nordic history
Readers accustomed to public-domain ebooks who are willing to read old-fashioned narrative slowly

Not a good fit for

General readers unfamiliar with Finnish who are unwilling to use reference tools
Readers expecting fast-paced plots or modern novelistic narration
Readers seeking authoritative historical scholarship rather than literary narrative
Readers who prefer short works or light reading in fragmented time

Reading tips

First learn the basic background of the Sture family and late medieval Finland before entering the character-driven narrative.
Prepare a Finnish dictionary or translation tools; mark old-fashioned expressions and look them up in batches.
Use the subtitle "The Angel of Death" as a clue and watch for death imagery and moral judgment in the narrative.
After reading, compare with other Nordic historical novels to see how nineteenth-century historical narrative differed in method.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What language is this book in? Can I read it without any Finnish?

The book is originally in Finnish. Without any Finnish, you can try with translation tools or a bilingual approach, but the difficulty is considerable; assess your language preparation before deciding whether to invest the time.

Is this a historical work or a novel?

The available information indicates that it is a literary work by a nineteenth-century author, and the title points to a historical figure and his contemporaries, making it closer to literary narrative on historical themes than to strict historical scholarship.

Why does the recommendation emphasize that it is a public-domain ebook?

Because the book was released by Project Gutenberg as a freely available public-domain ebook. That means readers can easily obtain the original text, but it also means the edition is an early digitized text.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Stjernström, Louise, 1812-1907 Author

Louise Stjernström (1812–1907) was an important writer in the field of Finnish historical fiction. Details of her life are relatively limited in publicly available sources, but the twelve works held in the collection show that she devoted herself over a long period to narrative writing set against Nordic history. She was especially drawn to figures shared by Swedish and Finnish history, from Gustav Vasa and Gustav II Adolf to Erik XIV and John III, and most of her works revolve around monarchs and their times. She often developed her material in series, such as the successive volumes on Gustav II Adolf and the Vasa dynasty. Her tone is solemn, and she gives weight to political conflict and family feuds, weaving religion, power and personal fate together. Her titles carry clear markers of historical fiction, indicating that she wrote for general readers, recreating the shifts of Nordic royal power in an accessible yet careful manner.