Cora Sandel: Selected Short Stories

by Cora Sandel

Long considered one of Norway's classic writers, Cora Sandel (1880-1974) brings a feminist sensibility and a poignant humor to her tales of women on the edge of society. This collection contains Sandel's most important stories from the twenties through the forties.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Cora Sandel was the pen name of Sara Cecilia Görvell Fabricius, a Norwegian writer and painter who lived most of her life abroad. Her most famous works are the novels now known as the Alberta Trilogy.

Sara Cecilia Görvell Fabricius was born in Kristiania (now Oslo). Her parents were Jens Schow Fabricius (1839–1910) and Anna Margareta Greger (1858–1903). When she was 12 years old, financial difficulties forced her family to move to Tromsø where her father was appointed a naval commander. She started painting under the tutelage of Harriet Backer, and while still a teenager moved to Paris, where she married the Swedish sculptor Anders Jönsson (1883–1965). In 1921 they returned to Sweden, where she won custody of her son Erik after divorcing Jönsson.

In her youth she tried, without much success, to establish herself as a painter. And it wasn't until she was 46 years old that her debut novel, Alberte and Jakob was published, the first in what became the semi-autobiographical Alberta trilogy. Sandel used many elements from her own life and experiences in her stories, which often centre on the spiritual struggles of inarticulate and isolated women. The Alberta trilogy traced the emotional development of a lethargic and unhappy girl into a self-sufficient woman. These novels earned her an immediate place in the Scandinavian canon, but it was not until the 1960s that Sandel, now living as a recluse in Sweden, was discovered by the English-speaking world.

Despite her great literary success, she remained hidden behind her pseudonym and lived a rather secluded life. She was decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1957. Her home in Tromsø, built in 1838, now houses the Perspektivet Museum.

Reviews

[George Berguño · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cora Sandel was the penname of Sara Fabricius, a painter who lived most of her life outside her native Norway. As a young woman she went to live in Paris, but the fact is that she achieved only moderate success as a painter, and, at the age of 46 she turned to writing. Nowadays she is remembered primarily for her “Alberta Trilogy”, but I have chosen to review this lesser known book of short stories for two reasons. First, the stories were selected and translated by Barbara Wilson, and they represent the best translations into English of Cora Sandel’s work. Second, the stories themselves reveal that Cora Sandel was a major innovator in the realm of the short story.

Most of the stories in this collection are written in the present tense, which gives them a powerful immediacy. Writing in the present tense is not all that popular in the English language, but it works well in Norwegian; and the translator has demonstrated in an excellent fashion how striking Cora Sandel’s style can be. Another noteworthy characteristic of these stories is that, on the whole, Sandel does not work with plot. Like a painter who permits us to watch her as she applies oils to canvas, scenes unfold in no particular order. Even so, we are left with a remarkable sense of story. Sandel’s writing style is economical and at times elliptic, but always strikingly visual and physical.

When I first came across these stories I was impressed by Cora Sandel’s evident compassion for those persons who were at the margins of society: the oppressed, the dispossessed and the lonely. Some of the characters I encountered on first reading this book have continued to haunt me: the repulsive Severine, a vulgar old woman with no teeth and no obvious charms, but who somehow commands a string of lovers; the wretched Shit-Katrine, the scapegoat of a small town in Finnmark; the devious Lola, who poses in the nude for a group of young apprentice painters, and who cons them with a string of anecdotes about her origins; the wily Hval, a pawnbroker who appears to perform miracles with trinkets of gold; and the mysterious Mrs Arnold, who pulls off a most remarkable revenge on those who despised her.

If you have ever been angry at the hypocrisy and injustice that surrounds our daily lives, or if you have ever cared for those persons who live at the periphery of our society, then you will enjoy these timeless stories, written in a brilliant, tender and inimitable style by a woman who experienced loneliness, social misunderstanding and the unequal power relations between men and women.

[Jim Rader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Cora through a 1985 anthology of Norwegian short stories "Slaves of Love"; she was one of the more modern writers represented. Most of he stories are character studies or revolve around one character. My favorite "Lola" concerns a ravishing Spanish hustler, an "artists' model" who poses nude on a serial basis for mostly salivating dorks and two serious artists, one an unnamed once-mentioned woman probably Cora, herself a painter; the other, Jens, though apparently of some talent, is obsessed w/ Lola, feels he can glean a masterpiece from the tacky trickster; his mentality, both serious and adolescently naïve, is well depicted. Second favorite is "Kval" about another hustler who buys and sells gold trinkets to be melted down. One customer gets seller's remorse, an ugly scene at an auction ensues, and Kval goes half-mad./ Other stories depict male exploitation of women in a naturalist style free of polemic or banality; others focus on the marginal or dirt-poor. "The Art of Murder" is the only dud in the batch, as it gets rather heavy-handed in blaming neighborhood ignorance and tacit cruelty for an odd woman's suicide. The only long story "To Lukas", a possibly never-sent letter to a husband exiled by the Nazi occupation, covers fine or ironic feelings about war's devastation./ Ultra-cool: there is no direct mention of Nazis, only the letter's (or journal's) year dates give that away./ Most of these stories, save the period details, could've been written yesterday and shame most recent short fiction. Cora is both intellectual and street-wise, with an insight borne of wide life experience impossible to acquire inside four academic walls.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are sketches of life, well-written and clearly mostly autobiographical but not finished enough to be stories. I have read all of the author’s works that I’ve been able to find translated into English and enjoyed this collection.

[Sofia ♥️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read all the short stories, only a few (for school).

[Oda Caroline🌸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kunsten å myrde

[Monia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1973, "The Child Who Loved Roads" is the story of a child that hates adulthood and gravelled roads and loves the small tree-lined roads that lead to the hills and the farm and creativity. There, one can run and be free-spirited and safe, and stories come easily to the mind. It is a short story about the nonsense and confusion and shame of adolescence when growing up in a cookie-cutter gendered society.

[elderfoil...the whatever champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

My two favorite stories were probably Klara and Lola. A few 4 star stories in here, and I kept hoping to find a real scorcher...because Sandel's sentiments are great. But a certain kind of homogeneity to the collection, a more simplified/direct writing style, and some sort of lack of fireworks seemed to hold things back somewhat for me. I suppose that could also be looked at as both consistent and a mirroring of Sandel's content---so she could be spot on and much revered as well....