Праведная галеча

by Frans Emil Sillanpää, Франс Эміль Сіланпя

Франс Эміль Сіланпя — адзіны фінскі пісьменнік-лаўрэат Нобелеўскай прэміі (1939). За мяжой сваёй краіны ён стаў вядомы пасля публі кацыі рамана «Праведная галеча». У творы па-мастацку дасканала
ўвасоблена крывая лёсу селяніна-фіна Юхі Тойвалы — ад нараджэння ў ня стачы ў 1857 годзе да ўдзелу ў лавіне падзей «чырвонай эпохі».

«Праведная галеча» — гэта малюнак акалічнасцей шасцідзесяці насычаных зменамі і здарэннямі гадоў гісторыі маленькага «ядлаўцовага» народа на фоне напоўненай штодзённымі клопатамі, турботамі і гнятлівай аднастайнасцю плыні быцця асобнага «маленькага чалавека».

Genres: Nobel Prize, Finnish Literature, Classics, Fiction, Scandinavian Literature, 20th Century, German Literature

184 pages

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Frans Emil Sillanpää was born on the 16th of September, 1888, at Ylä-Satakunta in the Hämeenkyrö Parish of Finland on a desolate croft of the same name. The cottage had been built by his parents, his father Frans Henrik Henriksson, who had moved there some ten years before from Kauvatsa in the Kumo Valley, and his mother, Loviisa Vilhelmiina Iisaksdotter, whose family had lived in the Hämeenkyrö Parish from times immemorial.

Sillanpää's parents had experienced all the trials and tribulations common to generations of settlers in those parts of Finland. Frosts had killed their seeds, farm animals had perished, and the farmer's children, too, had died, until only Frans Emil, the youngest of the offspring, was left.

There was only a mobile school for the farm children, and it was purely by accident - young Sillanpää's life was to abound in accidents - that the crofter's son, who was regarded as a bright lad, came to attend a regular school where he displayed a real aptitude for learning. Some idealists decided that nothing less than a secondary school at Tampere would do and, after giving the matter some thought, old Sillanpää consented to send his son away. For five years, Sillanpää's parents pinched and scraped to keep their son in school, after which he supported himself for another three years and, in 1908, matriculated with good marks. This was a time in Finland when a promising young man could study almost indefinitely on borrowed money, and young Sillanpää was not slow to avail himself of this miscarriage of educational zeal. He plunged into learning and his studies were as chaotic as they were long drawn-out. He did, however, choose biology as his basic subject and worked hard in the laboratory, cutting up things, studying them under the microscope, and drawing what he saw until, one fine day, he woke up to find that five years had gone by; his examination day was still far off and the kind old gentlemen who had been lending him money were not prepared to do so any longer. He scraped together enough cash to return to his home, where he found his father and mother poorer than ever. He lived in their hut and shared their meals, which could hardly excite a gourmet's palate.

His student days were over, his amorous escapades a thing of the past, but at least it was easy enough for him to start from nothing. Sillanpää acquired at a nearby village shop some stationary of the type favoured by village lads for private correspondence and wrote a short story, which he sent to the editor of a large city paper without much hope of seeing it published. To use an expression popular in those days, the story must have been written with his heart's blood because, after a very short time, it appeared on the front page of the aforesaid paper and its author received a very handsome letter from the editor's secretary, as well as his fee, which was more than welcome. The story had been published under a pen name but the literary world of Helsinki soon discovered the identity of the author and the erstwhile eternal scholar found himself, to his amazement, receiving letters of extravagant praise. After several more of his stories had been published in the same paper, something very unusual happened. He was approached by a wellknown publisher who asked to be borne in mind should Sillanpää's literary output stretch to a whole book. The publisher went so far as to offer him a reasonable advance to enable him to work in peace.

Yet another wonder - one of a series - occurred at that time. At an unimportant village dance, Sillanpää met a shy seventeen-year-old girl who, insisting that she could not dance, sat far at the back of the dance hall. In spite of her resistance, Sillanpää dragged her out onto the dance floor to discover that she could dance after all, which she proceeded to do with the utmost seriousness and concentration. This was the beginning of a twenty-five-year saga, during which Sigrid Maria (for such was the name of the se

Reviews

[Gerhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Roman hat autobiographische Züge. Der Protagonist Johan ist der Sohn eines Kleinbauern Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Der Alltag besteht aus Hunger, Armut, Schulden. Er überlebt als Einziger der Familie, arbeitet und spart Geld für sich. Als er sich für eine Magd interessiert, kommt es zu einer Heirat; er weiß jedoch nicht, dass sie bereits von jemand anderes schwanger ist. Für ihn kommt damit das Elend wie in seiner Kindheit. Es kommen mehrere Kinder zur Welt, das Leben besteht neben Arbeit wieder aus Hunger und Schulden. Nach dem Tod der Ehefrau, eines Sohnes und der Lieblingstochter gerät er als Mitglied der roten Revolutionäre in den Bürgerkrieg. Die Geschichte liest sich düster und bedrückend, jedoch mit einem Sog, nur der Schlussteil, der den Bürgerkrieg betrifft, war für mich schwächer.

[Memduh Er · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hep yoksulluk, hepHep yoksulluk, hep sefalet, hep savaş... Dünyanın her yerinde insanın kaderi bu sanki...

Finlandiya bugün çok refah bir ülke belki ama 20. yüzyılın ortalarına kadar durum böyle değilmiş. Sillanpää, Jussi (Juha)'nın çocukluğundan başlayarak tüm yaşamını anlattığı Bir Hayat Yolcusu, basit bir adamın trajedisi aslında. İnsanın içini acıtıyor ince ince. Becerikli, kurnaz, hırslı bir adam olsaydı böyle gelişmezdi sanki olaylar, bu da insanın adalet duygusunu zedeliyor. Sade bir yaşamın bedeli bu kadar yüksek olamaz demek istiyor insan.

Sillanpää iyi bir yazar, sanki Fin Yaşar Kemal :)

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although he won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1939, the Finnish author Frans Emil Sillanpää is virtually unknown today. This is a pity, as his Meek Heritage is an excellent novel of rural poverty in difficult times. His hero, variously known as Jussi Toivola as well as other names, is a bit of a yutz, on the verge of being slightly retarded. We see his life from his birth to a drunken, abusive father to his execution for his (half-hearted) participation in a civil war.

Through it all, Sillanpää writes with an authority which raises him above the run of minor writers. I am always amazed by how many excellent writers are simply forgotten in the rush to what is deemed more today and more fashionable.

At one point, toward the end, his hero thinks:

Juha [Jussi] believes that he sees clearly now what life is. It is like some sour, silly substance of which every human beuing was given more than he could handle, so that he was always in a state of semi-exhaustion, always on the point of being suffocated by it; it was like being put to work in an enormous hayloft with dozens of carts bringing in hay at a gallop. Until at last one died....

I will check to see if any of his other works have been translated into English.

[J.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todellinen kirja. Lyhyt ja ytimekäs, historiallisesti silmiäaukova, upeasti kuvaa päähenkilön elämän ylä ja alamäet rujosti mutta ymmärtäen myös herkkyyden hetket. Erittäin lukukelpoinen vielä melkein 100 vuotta myöhemmin.

[Lumine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be amazingly immersive, it's gloomy narrative kept my eyes on this book for days in a row, at the same time with ache in my stomach due to how strong this story is, I couldn't stop reading because I needed to know the fate of Juha and his family, and the other characters, I would say that the main value of this book is an analysis of the troubled period of soviet rule in Finland, and the quality of life and struggles of the average finnish man at that time, I've had the chance to read other stories from this author with less sad plots, about teenage love and small pleasures of life, and the beauty of the nordic countryside, his books touched me deeply, his storytelling is uplifting, even in the saddest moments it's a type of sweet simplicity that makes you think of the importance of the small thing in our lives, no wonder this author won the nobel prize. The ending of Hurskas kurjuus left me so sad, but it was a poetic and beautiful form of sadness, reading this book was a guilty pleasure.

[Natia Morbedadze · Rating 3 out of 5]

ჰალდორ ლაქსნესის "დამოუკიდებელი ადამიანებისა" და კნუტ ჰამსუნის "მიწის მადლის" შემდეგ კიდევ ერთი საინტერესო ამბავი ნორდიკული სამყაროს (ამჯერად ფინეთის) უბრალო ადამიანებსა და ისტორიაზე, რომელიც ერთი ჩვეულებრივი კაცის სრული ბიოგრაფიის მაგალითზეა მოთხრობილი.

[BooksAndFrogs (Mervi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ensi aikoina näytti elämä niinkuin arvelevan, mihin suuntaan nyt tätäkin paria olisi lähdettävä viemään. Se arveli sitä jouluun asti ja päätti sitten: nouskoot nyt hiukan, kun ovat vielä alussaan ja kuvittelevat nousevansa.

Kotimainen klassikko jossa köyhä kurjuus = kansallisromantiikkaa. Vaikkei kirja missään nimessä keskity vain vuoden 1918 tapahtumiin, vaan kertoo yhden torpparin koko elämäntarinan, on tässä hämmentävintä kuitenkin se, miten nopeasti sisällissodan jälkeen tämä on aikoinaan julkaistu. Vielä silloin kuin sadat punaiset kärsivät vankileireillä ja vapautuneetkin kävelivät kotiin vain kuollakseen ja tuodakseen tuliaisena espanjantaudin.

[Susanna Natti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am becoming a fan of Sillanpää, but I hesitated as I rated this book. The edition I got, unfortunately, was one that seems to have been printed on demand, and no one at the source of publication seems to have noticed that there were format changes when it was transferred into print form. Sentences break in strange places forming new paragraphs, sometimes whole sections get repeated, and, hilariously, every time there should be a double "c", as in "accident" or "occur", it is eliminated, leaving "aident" and "ourrence". Once I figured out the quirks, it was possible to read but the sloppiness involved was just annoying.

Having said that, I am once again taken by Silanpää's development of a character who is hobbled by his limitations, placing him in the historical setting of Finland around the turn of the last century. We see Jussi Toivola (later called Juha or Janne as his circumstances change) struggle with poor beginnings and a crippling lack of imagination and agency as he stumbles from one living situation to the next, enjoying a brief rise in status, and finally being executed for his bumbling involvement with the communist side of Finland's internal war in 1918. That's not a spoiler. Silanpää lays out the whole sorry history at the outset. Is it nature or nurture that makes Jussi so benighted?

I find the description of country life and the historical period fascinating. And despite the publication errors, I find Silanpää's writing (with great credit to the translator, Alexandor Matson) once again seductively simple and capable of capturing the reader. I would have given the book a higher rating, based on that. It's a shame that the publication source has done such a disservice to the author and translator. It's still worth a read.

[Michael David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meek Heritage is a good novel.

When it came out it was probably innovative and revolutionary particularly to Finns. It's a sort of a Bildungsroman about a local peasant, Juha, who finds something he could be passionate about after a good number of his family perish despite his industry Part of the blame must of course be shifted to him because of his profligate child-making but then he eventually perishes because he knows too little and fails to adapt to time's vicissitudes. He is brought into the revolutionary movement at the twilight of his life without even knowing what it was all about. He dies in infamy for no other reason than he belonged to such a movement. It wasn't poorly written and there were indeed moments of excellence but Rizal's Fili did it better and much earlier than he did in Kabesang Tales's story.

I have no regrets in purchasing the novel, however, just that other bildungsromans are better written.

[Jorge Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ao autor finlandês foi atribuído o prémio Nobel da Literatura em 1939, ano em que começou a segunda guerra mundial e também a guerra entre a URSS e a Finlândia. O romance, Santa Miséria, foi publicado em 1919, pouco tempo depois de ter terminado a guerra civil finlandesa ocorrida em 1918. Esta, um reflexo da implosão da Rússia Czarista e da subsequente tomada do poder pelos comunistas, opôs também ela, tal como a guerra civil russa, brancos e vermelhos, conservadores e sociais democratas revolucionários. É nela e na vitória, na Finlândia, dos Brancos que o protagonista encontra a consumação do seu destino. A obra de Sillanpää possui quatro linhas estruturantes. A fluidez da identidade, a configuração complexa das pessoas simples, o paralelismo entre a história do indivíduo e a da comunidade e, por fim, a história do indivíduo como cumprimento de um destino e a submissão à estrita necessidade.

Continuar a ler em https://bit.ly/3mNkTh9

[Lotta Westerlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't believe that a tragic or typical life story is necessarily a good book. This story is a window into Finnish history and as such it's informative but after about half of it I found myself wondering why I should keep reading. Because it aims to be a realistic life story, the story never carries forward in any sort of meaningful way. It's up to you and your interest in Finnish civil war working class conditions to motivate you to read on.

[Sonja O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should have loved this more, but for whatever reason I struggled with it. The book is chock-full of exquisitely written passages and insightful comments about human nature. It's also surprisingly funny. Even so, reading it still felt like a chore at times. Probably because I had to read it for school.

[Hello · Rating 3 out of 5]

І да чаго гэта ўсё было? Тут у 180 старонак нам расказалі біяграфію сярэднестатыстычнага фіна ў часы рэвалюцыі.

Я нават не ведаю, як гэтую кнігу ацаніць... Напісана нядрэнна, але з-за пам��ру падобна на пераказ. І экзэстынцыйных разваг, як на мой густ, зашмат.

[Максім Паморак · Rating 5 out of 5]

Моцны твор. Яскрава апісана жыццё простага чалавека ў цяжкія часы, якое як снежны ком цягне за сабой паўсюдную галечу, гвалт, жорсткасць

[Klaus Mattes · Rating 4 out of 5]

(dnf)

Sillanpää gehört bei mir zu einer Epoche meines Lebens, als ich nach der Erfahrung einer schweren Krankheit noch einmal zu den Leseinteressen meiner Zehner-Jahre, meiner Jugend, zurückging. Ich wollte nachsehen, wie das „wirklich“ gewesen war. Und fing mit einer Reihe von Maigret-Kriminalromanen an, die bei mir zu den ersten „erwachsenen“ Büchern gehört hatten, die mich nach Karl May und der „Arena Bibliothek der Abenteuer“ erreicht hatten. Damals gab es eine Reihe von Nobelpreisträgern, auf die Zeitungen mich aufmerksam machten und die ich fasziniert las: Alexander Solschenizyn, Heinrich Böll, Patrick White, Eyvind Johnson, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Auch Skandinavien fasziniere mich. Ich wollte unbedingt hinfahren, bin bis heute nie dort gewesen. Von einer Tante bekam ich jahrelang ihre alten „Merian“-Hefte geschenkt – „Norwegens Fjordland“, „Island“ und „Finnland“ sahen toll aus. Immer wieder habe ich mir gerne Listen angelegt. Damals war es die Liste der ins Deutsche übersetzten, in Taschenbüchern greifbaren Nobelpreisträger. Von Sillanpää dürfte es da kaum etwas gegeben haben. Ich las ihn damals nicht, wusste aber sofort, um wen es sich handelte, als ich mitkriegte, dass es eine neue gebundene Ausgabe von seinem Meisterwerk im Buchhandel gab.

Frans Eemil Sillanpää (ja, korrekt ist er mit zwei E, wenn er hier auch nur mit einem steht) ist bis auf den heutigen Tag der einzige Finne geblieben, der je einen Literaturnobelpreis verliehen bekommen hat. Nämlich erst 1939 für sein schon 1919 erschienenes „Frommes Elend“. Bei Sillanpää handelt es sich um eine Art nationales Medienmaskottchen. Erst wurde er Alkoholiker, schrieb aber immer noch viele, viele Bücher, die längst nicht mehr so gut gewesen sein sollen wie das hier. Und stromerte endlos durch die Radio- und Fernsehprogramme der finnischen fünfziger und sechziger Jahren, als man ganz im Schatten des großen Nachbarn und Kriegsgewinners Russland lebte, sich selbst politisch zu größter Zurückhaltung vergatterte, zugleich aber die stolze Tradition unabhängiger Suomi-Volkstümlichkeit hochhielt.

„Frommes Elend“, das merkte ich, ist ein gutes Buch. Grob, raubautzig, heimatverliebt, volksnah. Ich mochte schon Ramuz, John Steinbeck, Friedrich Glauser, Andor Endre Gelléri, Vladislav Vančura, warum sollte ich diesen Finnen nicht auch lieben? Wir befinden uns in einer so nirgendwo mehr existierenden Bauernwelt, bei eher randständigen Figur und doch hat natürlich schon dieser Autor nicht wirklich für „einfache Bauern“ geschrieben, sondern für die Städter, die sich auf ihre eigenen ländlichen Wurzeln zurückbesinnen wollen.

Tja – und dann blieb ich, der ich immer mehrere Bücher parallel lese, möglichst unterschiedliche, drin stecken und weiß gar nicht mehr wieso, es war doch gut, aber es liegt jetzt halt seit Jahren nur noch so rum.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

La fondation Nobel ne cache pas le fait qu'elle a accordé le prix Nobel de Littérature à Frans Emil Sillanpää en décembre 1939 parce que l'URSS avit envahi la Finlande le mois précédent. Alors, j'ai été très agréablement surpris par la grande qualité de ce roman qui démontre que Sillanpää a bien mérité le grand honneur qu'il a reçu.

Dans "Sainte Misère" Frans Emil Sillanpää employe le meme procédé qu'a employé Mo Yan dans "La dure loi de Karma"; c'est-à-dire il commence avec le mort loufoque du protagoniste et ensuite il raconte la vie entière du pauvre type afin d'expliquer comment il est parvenu à sa fin peu glorieuse. L'héros de Sillanpää est executé par les Blancs pour avoir milité chez les communistes pendant la guerre civile de Finlande en 1917 tandis que l'héros de Yan est supprimé pour avoir résisté à la collectivisation des terres agricoles en Chine pendant les années 1950. La force des deux romans est le portrait qu'ils contiennent de la et des moeurs d'une paysannerie à une époque révolutionnaire.

Sillanpää n'a pas été communiste comme Mo Yan, mais on peut le considérer comme un compagnon de route. "Sainte Misère" a été écrit avant l'élaboration formelle des règles du réalisme socialiste, mais il partage avec ce genre littéraire marxiste-léniniste une préoccuppation avec la prise de conscience à la lutte des classes.

Dans "Sainte Misère", Sillanpää aborde les thèmes que l'on trouve chez des auteurs qui l'ont précédé tels que Maxim Gorki et Knut Hamsun et aussi des auteurs qui l'ont suivi tels que Mikhail Sholokhov et André Malraux. Sillanpää a simplement fait sa contribution au débat sur la politique des prolétaires Ce roman sera d'un grand intérêt pour tous ceux qui s'intéresse à ce débat qui a beaucoup marqué le 20e siècle.

[Mika Auramo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frans Emil Sillanpään kolmas kaunokirjallinen teos Hurskas kurjuus kuvaa suomalaista torpparielämää, yksinäisyyttä ja köyhän miehen kurjuutta elämänsä alusta sen loppuun. Kirja antaa hyvän näkökulman yhteiskunnalliseen murrokseen ja sivullisen näkökulmaan, sillä kuuluuhan vuonna 1919 julkaistu romaani niin sanottuun kansanrealismiin niin kuin monet Joel Lehtosenkin kirjat.

Pääosaa esittää Toivolan Juha, joka on alkujaan koillissatakuntalaisen tilallisen vesa ja syntynyt vuonna 1857. Isä Penjamin on kuitenkin juoppo ja ryyppää tilansa perikatoon, ja siitä on alkava myös Juhan elämän kestävä Amok-juoksu epäonnesta toiseen.

Myös äiti kuolee, ja hetken lohtua tuo tylsämielinen vetelys ja piika nimeltään Riina, johon Juha ihastuu kulkeuduttuaan takaisin kotitanhuville ja päästessään lapsuutensa kurjuudesta edes hiukan tienaamaan. Tie vie lopulta pieneen torppaan kituuttelemaan, ja elämä on jatkuvaa kamppailua epätoivon ja nälkäkuoleman rajamailla. Monet heikot ja sairaalloiset lapset ja vaimokin joutuvat manan majoille vuosien varrella.

Vuodet vierivät, ja sosialismin aate levittäytyy myös korven perukoille. Elämän ja kohtalon kaltoin kokema Juha osallistuu muiden punaisten mukana ryöstöretkille henkensä pitimiksi, ettei tarvitse viikosta toiseen syödä entistä laihempaa perunavelliä ja sillilientä.

Yksinkertaisen ja päähän potkitun torpparin elämä ajautuu loppusuoralle, kun soramontun laitamilta löytyy murhattuna Paitulan isäntä. Lahtarit piirittävät pimeän pirtin, ja paitaressut lapset jäävät töllinsä rappusille värisemään kylmissään, kun noutajat tulevat. Juha vaipuu epätoivoon pohtiessaan elettyä elämää ja elämänsä valintoja sekä yksinäisyyttään: koskaan hänellä ei ollut ainuttakaan ystävää, elämäntoverista puhumattakaan.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sillanpää’s Hurskas kurjuus—often translated as Meek Heritage—is a short, devastating novel that compresses class struggle, moral fatalism, and human fragility into a stark narrative of rural Finland during the civil war.

The protagonist, Juha Toivola, is a poor tenant farmer whose life is shaped less by choice than by circumstance.

He drifts into political rebellion not out of ideology, but out of exhaustion, hunger, and quiet resentment. Sillanpää’s brilliance lies in showing how history recruits the vulnerable.

The prose is spare, almost ascetic. Sentences are clean, unadorned, and emotionally controlled. This restraint mirrors Juha’s passivity. Violence arrives not with fury, but with resignation. Death is not heroic—it is administrative.

Sillanpää refuses moral dramatisation. Neither the rebels nor the authorities are demonised.

Instead, the novel exposes how social structures grind individuals down until agency becomes theoretical. Juha is not innocent, but he is not fully responsible either. He is caught.

Nature in the novel is indifferent. Fields, forests, and seasons continue regardless of human conflict. This indifference amplifies tragedy. The earth does not judge. It endures.

The Nobel committee honoured Sillanpää for portraying rural life with authenticity and depth. Meek Heritage stands out for its refusal to politicise suffering. It does not argue. It testifies.

In its quiet way, the novel delivers one of literature’s harshest insights: that history often does not need monsters. Poverty is enough.

Recommended.

[Martti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frans Emil Sillanpään (1888-1964) "Hurskas kurjuus" on kirjoitettu vuoden 1918 sisällissodan aikoihin. Se oli aikanaan niin tulenarka kirja, että sitä ei uskallettu julkaista vuonna 1918, vaan vasta hieman saksittuna vuotta myöhemmin. Kirjan menestys toi Sillanpäälle kansainvälistä mainetta, ja yhdessä muiden merkkiteosten kanssa se toi hänelle aikanaan kirjallisuuden Nobel-palkinnon 1930-luvun lopussa.

Sekä punaisten että valkoisten väkivalta sodan aikana ja varsinkin valkoisten mielivalta teloituksineen heti sodan ratkettua saivat Sillanpään kynän liikkeelle. Hänen sympatiansa olivat heikomman osapuolen, sodassa ja arjessa kovia kokeneen maaseudun köyhälistön puolella. Sillanpää tunsi köyhän kansanosan olosuhteet henkilökohtaisesti, sillä hänen isänsä oli mäkitupalaisia, jotka olivat torppareitakin heikommassa asemassa olevia maaseudun vuokralaisia, jotka joutuivat tekemään usein kohtuutonta työvelvoitetta isäntätilalle.

"Hurskas kurjuus" alkaa heti kirjan ratkaisulla. Köyhä, kuusissakymmenissä oleva torppari Jussi Toivola ammutaan talollisisännän murhasta syytettynä keväällä 1918. Punakaartiin kuulunut Jussi on syytön murhaan, mutta sodan voittajat jakavat ankaria pikatuomioita heppoisin perustein.

Kirja seuraa Jussi Toivolan vaiheita 1860-luvun nälkävuosista alkaen aina kevään 1918 teloitukseen saakka. Yksinkertaista ja nöyrää Jussia kohtelevat huonosti ja käyttävät hyväkseen oikeastaan kaikki: sukulaiset, lähipiirin "ystävät", vaimoksi raskauden kautta ujuttautuva Riina-piika ja talollisisännät. Tarina on kautta linjan synkkä ja alakuloinen. Se kuvaa köyhissä tölliläisoloissa elävän perheen hengissäpysymisen taistelua, johon hetkittäisen helpotuksen tuo vain yöllinen uni.

Sillanpään teksti on jo lähes sadan vuoden takaa, mutta se on kestänyt aikaa ihailtavan hyvin. Synkästä aiheesta huolimatta taitavassa tekstissä on vieläkin hyvä imu, ja sitä on helppo lukea. Kirja pitää otteessaan, vaikka lopputulos on tiedossa heti alusta lähtien.

Seuraavassa tekstiotteessa valkoiset ovat hakeneet Jussin torpastaan ja vievät häntä tuttua kylätietä pitkin vankipaikalle kuulusteltavaksi. Jussi aavistaa, mitä on tulossa.

"Tullaan kylän aukealle ja Juha näkee talot illan alkavassa hämyssä, niin kuin olisi kulunut kymmenen vuotta menneestä yöstä. Hän ajattelee jo selvästi, että hänet tapetaan; kuuma tunne lievittää mieltä ja valuttaa yhä uusia vesiä vanhoista silmistä ja nenästä. Jalkaa väsyttää, mutta väsymys on nyt omituisen huumaavaa. Lientyneen mielen taustalla asuu yhä vahvempana eletyn elämän tuntu, masentavan osaamattomuuden tunne."

[Hanna Piatushek · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What can be more easy then to write about peasant's life", I thought before I read this book.
Following the story of life for the main character from his birth till the death, it was kinda difficult story to me, but helped me to understand more my grand-grandparents.
The style of writing is so clear and easy which is I guess another tool to make us to understand the reality of the charachter he lives in. The entire life the character was so poor and all the time he worked hard to earn more money which should bring him desire happiness. Ar the end we see him having lots of money. But was he happy?
Thank you dear author for this masterpiece!

[Tarmo Syvapuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sillanpää piti jälleen otteessaan. Erinomainen kuvaus Jussi Toivolan elämästä; lapsuudesta, nuoruuteen, miehuuteen, vanhuuteen ja kuolemaan. Nälkävuodet, suomalaisuuden herääminen, torpparit, joiden luona asui ensin puute ja myöhemmin kurjuus. Paljon aiheita mahtuu tähän romaaniin.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

заказала данный раритет на алиб�� в приступе шопоголизма; не жалею. грустная книга о бедном и глупом (не по своей вине) человеке, родившемся в насилии и умеревшем от насилия. такой толстовский рой в финском переложении; одинаково, впрочем, противно от такого колониального взгляда

[Terttu Mäkinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Juha (Jussi tai Janne) ikuinen ulkopuolinen, jota kurjuus suorastaan jahtasi. Nobel-kirjailijamme varhaisteos, kirjoitettu 1919.

[Olli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kolme tähteä klassikkoarvosta ja historiallisesta viitekehyksestä. Muuten aika puuduttavaa luettavaa.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read about the life of land owners and peasants in Finland from 1855 till 1918. I've read in a German translation; called Das Fromme Elend.

[Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Nataalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

learned a lot about finnish history from this book
really miserable story

[Milla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niin lempeästi katselen tätä esi-isieni kaltaisen Jussin elontaivalta ja sen surullista loppua, että sydän pakahtuu. Pötkölleen on päästävä. Kurjuuteen mahtuu kaikenlaista.

[Katariina Kemppainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hyvä, mutta todella synkeä. Ei toki yllätys kirjan nimen perusteella.

[Yesno S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Membacanya membuat saya bertanya sejak kalimat awal: bagaimana Finlandia di masa itu, dan masa kini sebagai negara paling bahagia di dunia (World Happiness Report 2024).