Tales from Two Hemispheres

Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth, 1848-1895Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 319K words
Chapters: 32

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.Tales from Two Hemispheres by Hjalmar Hjorth BoyesenAuthor: Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth, 1848-1895,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 1995

Editor's review

Tales from Two Hemispheres is a short story collection by the Norwegian-American writer Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, its title pointing to an experience spanning both sides of the Atlantic. Familiar with Nordic immigrant life and American society, Boyesen often shifts his settings between the Old and New Worlds, focusing on immigrant identity, cultural gaps, and everyday human relations, in a gentle, finely detailed style characteristic of late nineteenth-century realist fiction. This book comes from Project Gutenberg as a public-domain electronic text, freely accessible for reading and comparative study. Its value lies not in dramatic plotting but in showing how an immigrant writer uses the short story form to explore the psychological distance between "two hemispheres." It is well suited as an early sample of American multicultural and immigrant writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in immigrant literature and cross-cultural writing
Students and scholars of nineteenth-century American short fiction
Literary readers who enjoy leisurely, character-sketch-style stories
Advanced learners looking to expand their reading of English public-domain texts

Not a good fit for

Readers of genre fiction who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Beginners with little patience for nineteenth-century English prose style

Reading tips

Read in the order of the stories, and after each one note which "hemisphere" the setting belongs to, comparing where the narrative focus lies.
Pay attention to how the author handles the everyday details of Nordic immigrant life; keeping brief notes on characters and places can help.
There is no need to finish it in one sitting; reading one or two stories at a time leaves room for reflection and comparison.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century American immigration history to understand where the cultural gaps in the book come from

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 themes does this collection focus on?

Judging from the title and the author's background, the stories revolve around life experience between two hemispheres, touching on the immigrant condition, cultural differences, and observations of human nature. It is not a continuous novel built on a single theme; it is better appreciated story by story, attending to how characters respond to changing circumstances in different settings.

Can I understand it without a background in Nordic or immigration history?

Yes, but background knowledge will noticeably improve your understanding. It helps to first learn the basic outline of nineteenth-century Nordic migration to the United States before reading the stories, as this makes it easier to grasp the characters' situations and the author's choices. Read simply as ordinary short stories, it still offers the pleasure of character-sketch-style writing.

What should I keep in mind when reading a public-domain electronic text?

Public-domain texts usually lack modern annotations, and older spelling and sentence patterns may take some getting used to. Use reading software with adjustable fonts, mark unfamiliar expressions and look them up together afterward rather than interrupting the reading flow, and note the version information for citation purposes.

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About the author

Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth, 1848-1895 Author

Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen (1848–1895) was a Norwegian-born author, with seven works included in this collection. His representative works span fiction, essays and children's books: the novels A Good-For-Nothing, Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories and Tales from Two Hemispheres; the essay collection Essays on Scandinavian Literature; and Nordic-themed books for young readers such as The Story of Norway, The Modern Vikings: Stories of Life and Sport in the Norseland and Boyhood in Norway: Stories of Boy-Life in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Public information on his life is limited, yet his works show an interest in Norwegian landscapes and everyday town and country life, written in a plain and restrained style, and a gift for portraying Nordic life and outdoor sport in stories for children and young people. His writing on Scandinavian literature and scenery offered English-language readers an accessible window onto Norwegian culture.