Kristin Labransdatter

It is not the case that Sigrid Undset wrote this book unsure where she wanted to plot or characters to go. I was completely wrong. Kristin Labransdatter is a complex, beautiful, woven tapestry. Of course a tapestry of this intricacy could not be woven in one sitting but I mistook, e.g. the disappearance of Simon Darre and his reintroduction much later as being like Charles Dickens' desperate grasping for new angles, new characters, willy-nilly. I cannot say that Miss Undset had the whole book written in her mind before she put pen to paper. It would astound me, actually, if she had. It is so intricate. In The Mistress of Husaby, "Husaby,"--All about Kristin, right? What else.--there have now been nine pages devoted to Simon and Simon is in the process of being wooed or seduced by Ramborg, Kristin's baby sister, so there is no end in sight, not in my sight anyway. There has been no mention of Kristin. I cannot say that the book is overlong. I cannot say that it is or is not. It does not flow as smoothly as War and Peace or Remembrance of Things Past. I have never read a similar length book like this one. I cannot get a handle on Miss Undset as writer.