Eleven Years, Twelve Years

Undset, Sigrid: Elleve år - Tolv år

Eleven Years consists of Sigrid Undset’s own childhood memoirs. In calling herself Ingvild, she pays tribute to her father, the archaeologist Invald Undset, who died when she was eleven. Here we find a depiction of children’s carefree games, but also an intuitive understanding of problems of adulthood.

Twelve Years is an indirect sequel to this autobiography, and was not published until 1998. Ingvild’s mother, now a widow, moves with her three daughters to Stensgaten in the outskirts of the capital. Twelve-year-old Ingvild tells about her new neighbourhood, about catching up with old friends, and about making new ones. The reader learns more about her parents’ relationship, about summer holidays and the schooldays at Ragna Nielsen’s school. Here, the story ends abruptly, in the middle of a sentence. The manuscript for this book was found among the papers in Sigrid Undset's home at Lillehammer after her death.

First published: 1934. New edition by Aschehoug Fiction in 2003

Sigrid Undset: Biography and bibliography

Rights sold to

Language Foreign publisher
American English Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Czech Vysehrad
Danish Jespersen og Pio, Copenhagen
French Éditions Stock, Paris
German Bruno Cassirer

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