Captain Mansana & Mother's Hands

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjrnson is considered as one of "The Great Four" Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland.

Genres: Classics

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit."
Bjørnson is the author of the lyrics to the Norwegian National Anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet".

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Mansana (Kaptejn Mansana, en foretaeling fra Italien) opens:

I was on my way to Rome, and as I entered the train at Bologna, I bought some newspaers to read on my journey.

Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson insists in his author's note that the person Captain Mansana did exist and who am I to dispute that. This story surrounds the exhumation of the titular's bones from a cemetary of the poor and criminal class to be re buried with much pomp and circumstance as a hero of his times. Mansana's fight was within those societies seeking to make Italy a country and reducing the Papal stranglehold.

Mother's Hands

Mummy and daughter have a 'little talk' after an excruciating display of adoration. Within this story Bjoernstjerne Bjoernson submits his dissing of Tolstoy, pointing out just where Leo gets it all wrong.


Lots to chew over in these two short stories, although the translation is not tip-top it's good enough to extract the full meaning of the prose. Probably deserves a re-read in a few years.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two novellas in one book. "Captain Mansana" is a love story between a heroic army captain and a princess. He is vain and has an oversized sense of honor and she is self-absorbed and arrogant, until they meet and then their personalities begin to change. "Mother's Hands"is about a mother telling her grown daughter the story of how she met the daughters father who died when she was a baby. Both stories are very well written but, as in most of his books that I've read, there is a slight sense of unease that is felt when reading them.