Introduction

[John]

This novel from Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset is set at the beginning of the twentieth century, and we follow the development of the main character, Paul Selmer, from a boy to a young man. He grew up in a broken family, and although his parents maintained a relatively good relationship after the divorce, and both treated him well, he missed being part of a whole family. He lived with his mother, who remained single after the divorce, while his father remarried another woman. At first, he blamed his father for the divorce, as it looked like he was the one breaking out of the marriage in favor of another woman, and he tried to avoid contact with him. But one day his mother told him a story which made him change his view of this matter, and he started blaming his mother for the divorce instead.

His mother was modern and liberal minded and regarded religion and old-fashioned moral values as a thing of the past. Paul was at first of the same opinion, but when he moved from his mother and started living by himself, he met a friendly family who were members of the Catholic church. The contact with them, and later other Catholics gradually convinced him that the truth was within the Catholic church, and he moved from being an atheist to be a Catholic believer. He also met and fell deeply in love with Lucy Arnesen, a country girl from a completely different world than his. This book is both a story of conversion, and a passionate love story, which clearly shows the psychological insight of Sigrid Undset in the human mind, and her quality as a storyteller.

The initial discussion questions this month are fairly generic. More may be added, but feel free to add your own.

[Frances]

Thank you, John.

[Fonch]

There is one thing in Which i disagree the plot is good to sumarize the two books the story of the Paul converssion is told in his sequel the Burning Bush. In Wild Orchid the catholicism or his presence is reduced. Although the priest Harald Tangen apears. For this reason i recomend more The Burning Bush more than Wild Orchid. Wild Orchid is more right to explain a Society without God indeed the northern countries had been pioneers in the labor of dischristianization of the societies and the promotion of liberalism, socialism, and femenism and other secular movements. The Society described by Undset and the Paul Selmer's family are very close to the western families. Now the divorce is something absolutely usual.