Liliecrona's home by Selma Lagerlöf
"Liliecrona's home" by Selma Lagerlöf is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in rural Värmland, it likely explores village life, the parsonage at Lövdala, and the tensions within a newly blended household. The story centers on the spirited young Eleonora (“Little-Maid” or Nora), the gentle pastor’s daughter Maia Lisa, the Pastor, and his capable but formidable new wife, mixing folklore, domestic drama, and nature’s force. The opening of the
novel begins with a ferocious Christmas storm that upends the district and threatens to thwart Little-Maid’s longed-for journey to a family feast. Resourceful and stubborn, she ultimately sails across the ice on makeshift pine “sleds” with her younger brother, catching the eye of the Svartsjö Pastor’s new wife, who promptly takes her into service at Lövdala. There, Nora wakes to a kitchen full of spinning wheels, witnesses the stepmother’s harsh treatment of Maia Lisa and the servants’ quiet resistance, and hears Maia Lisa’s poetic lesson about the vanished “Black Lake” that shaped the valley. In night-time confidences, Maia Lisa retells her family’s recent upheaval as a Snow-White parable: how the austere, competent Mamsell Vabitz entered as housekeeper, married the Pastor, and imposed strict order—illustrated by vivid household episodes (a mischievous goat, guarded orchards, and sold apples)—leaving Maia Lisa struggling to keep her father’s affection and the home’s old warmth alive. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Lagerlöf, Selma, 1858-1940 |
|---|---|
| Translator | Barwell, Anna |
| Uniform Title | Liljecronas hem. English |
| Title | Liliecrona's home |
| Original Publication | New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1914. |
| Credits | Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 85.6 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures |
| Subject | Young women -- Fiction |
| Subject | Love stories |
| Subject | Domestic fiction |
| Subject | Household employees -- Fiction |
| Subject | Stepmothers -- Fiction |
| Subject | Swedish fiction -- Translations into English |
| Subject | Families of clergy -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76681 |
| Release Date | Aug 14, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 221 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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