Helpless: A Story

Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 194K words
Chapters: 20

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.Avuttomia: Kertomus by Maiju LassilaAuthor: Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918,Language: Finnish, Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures, Release Date: Jun 6, 2015

Editor's review

Avuttomia: Kertomus is a narrative work by the Finnish author Maiju Lassila; the title may be understood as "The Helpless" or "The Powerless," indicating the people the work focuses on and its tone. Lassila's writing often treats the circumstances of the lower classes and ordinary people with a cold, ironic touch, and this work likewise unfolds in the form of a "story," best approached through the relationship between its characters' fates and their social environment. For Chinese readers this is a Finnish literary work that requires crossing a language barrier; this is a public-domain Finnish-language electronic edition from Project Gutenberg, suited to readers with Finnish reading ability or to those engaged in Finnish literary studies. Its value lies in presenting one strand of realism and social critique in Finnish literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and it can be read in comparison with socially themed works by Nordic writers of the same period. Without Finnish, this edition is difficult to use directly; readers are advised to look for a translation or relevant research materials first.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers with Finnish reading ability
Scholars of Finnish and Nordic literature
Comparative literature readers interested in realism and lower-class themes
Advanced learners seeking a Finnish public-domain text as language-learning material

Not a good fit for

General readers who know no Finnish and have no translation
Casual readers who prefer light plots and upbeat endings
Beginners seeking detailed annotations and an introduction

Reading tips

Learn about Lassila's style and era before entering the text, to grasp the ironic tone.
Note the tension between characters' social circumstances and the narrative voice; this is key to understanding the work.
Read alongside Nordic realist works of the same period and compare their approaches to social critique.
Language learners can read one chapter straight through to get used to the style, then close-read section by section and compile vocabulary.

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

Can I read this book without knowing Finnish?

This edition is in the original Finnish, and without Finnish it is difficult to read directly. Readers are advised to look for a Chinese or other-language translation first, or to use relevant research materials to understand the work before deciding whether to use the original edition.

How should the title "Avuttomia" be understood?

The word means helpless or powerless people in Finnish; the title points to ordinary people in difficult circumstances. Its specific meaning should be grasped through the characters and plot of the text, and it should not be reduced to a single interpretation apart from the text.

Is this book suitable as language-learning material?

Learners with some foundation in Finnish can use it as advanced reading material, but as a literary text its sentence patterns and vocabulary are not necessarily suited to beginners. A dictionary and grammar tools are recommended, starting with short paragraphs.

Comments

Find this book

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

Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918 Author

Lassila, Maiju (1868–1918) is an important author in Finnish literary history. Public information about her is limited, and the details of her life are not recorded in the available sources, yet the thirty works held here show how prolific she was. Her representative works include Tulitikkuja lainaamassa, Kuolleista herännyt: Seikkailukertomus eli etsijän tarina, Manasse Jäppinen, Pojat asialla and Mestari Nyke: Romaani, merkkiteos, whose titles often suggest humour, adventure and everyday life. Her output spans novels and stage works; Luonnon lapsia: 4-näytöksinen huvinäytelmä, for instance, is a four-act comedy. She often drew on rural figures and the fortunes of ordinary people, writing in a light, playful tone with gentle satire of human manners and social life. Her works circulated widely among Finnish readers, and some have become enduring pieces in the national literary tradition.