{"id":31249,"date":"2012-05-10T11:30:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=31249"},"modified":"2012-05-10T11:27:35","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:27:35","slug":"a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#8217;s Daughter\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books deserve more attention. <em>Gunnar\u2019s Daughter<\/em> was published a century ago but takes place in the Middle Ages and has all the great dark and bizarre appeal of Icelandic legend recycled for an Edwardian audience ready to be shocked. Click in and scroll down for the whole story.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Jason Novak\" width=\"113\" height=\"158\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31338\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/gunnarsdaughter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31273\" title=\"gunnarsdaughter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/gunnarsdaughter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"574\" height=\"8019\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Jason Novak works at a grocery store in Berkeley, California, and changes diapers in his spare time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books deserve more attention. Gunnar\u2019s Daughter was published a century ago but takes place in the Middle Ages and has all the great dark and bizarre appeal of Icelandic legend recycled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[489],"tags":[7459,1822,7461,7460,4279,7458],"class_list":["post-31249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","tag-gunnars-daughter","tag-iceland","tag-middle-ages","tag-myth-and-legend","tag-nobel-prize","tag-sigrid-undset"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#039;s Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-\u2018gunnars-daughter\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#039;s Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-\u2018gunnars-daughter\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"113\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"158\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Novak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Novak\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jason Novak\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73a3e20b9e41a9e46c987091765e681\"},\"headline\":\"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#8217;s Daughter\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/\"},\"wordCount\":94,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gunnar's Daughter\",\"Iceland\",\"Middle Ages\",\"myth and legend\",\"Nobel Prize\",\"Sigrid Undset\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/\",\"name\":\"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar's Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00\",\"description\":\"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#8217;s Daughter\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73a3e20b9e41a9e46c987091765e681\",\"name\":\"Jason Novak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/605492ae9d35c885c5d6c958303b2302ef0c87769f8a2bec5845130138fa9954?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/605492ae9d35c885c5d6c958303b2302ef0c87769f8a2bec5845130138fa9954?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jason Novak\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jason-novak\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar's Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak","description":"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-\u2018gunnars-daughter\u2019\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar's Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak","og_description":"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-\u2018gunnars-daughter\u2019\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":113,"height":158,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jason Novak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Novak"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/"},"author":{"name":"Jason Novak","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73a3e20b9e41a9e46c987091765e681"},"headline":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#8217;s Daughter\u2019","datePublished":"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/"},"wordCount":94,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg","keywords":["Gunnar's Daughter","Iceland","Middle Ages","myth and legend","Nobel Prize","Sigrid Undset"],"articleSection":["Books"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/","name":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar's Daughter\u2019 by Jason Novak","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-10T15:30:23+00:00","description":"May 10, 2012 \u2013 A ten-foot-tall panel illustrating the 1909 Norwegian novel by Sigrid Undset. Now largely forgotten, Undset won the Nobel Prize in 1928. I think her books","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/middlemarchtiny.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/10\/a-panorama-of-%e2%80%98gunnars-daughter%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Panorama of \u2018Gunnar&#8217;s Daughter\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73a3e20b9e41a9e46c987091765e681","name":"Jason Novak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/605492ae9d35c885c5d6c958303b2302ef0c87769f8a2bec5845130138fa9954?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/605492ae9d35c885c5d6c958303b2302ef0c87769f8a2bec5845130138fa9954?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jason Novak"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/jason-novak\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31249"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31339,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31249\/revisions\/31339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}