The Emperor of Portugallia

A poor man's love. A daughter's silence. An empire built on air.

Selma Lagerlöf's devastating novel is a "Swedish King Lear"—a story of a father whose devotion to his daughter transforms into a madness that becomes his only shelter from an unbearable truth.

Jan Andersson is a poor tenant farmer in rural Värmland, scraping by on the edge of poverty. His life changes forever with the birth of his daughter, Klara Gulla—whom he calls Glory Goldie Sunnycastle. She is everything to him: light, purpose, proof that his life matters. He loves her with an intensity that excludes all else.

When Klara turns seventeen, she leaves for Stockholm to find work. The letters come at first. Then they stop. Jan waits at the pier every day, scanning the horizon for her return. The villagers whisper. Rumors reach him—horrible rumors about what his daughter has become in the city.

Jan cannot bear the truth. So he refuses it.

He retreats into a world of his own making. He imagines that Klara has become the empress of a distant kingdom called Portugallia. And he, naturally, is the emperor himself. He fashions a crown from rags and twigs. He takes the front bench in church, believing his imperial dignity demands it. He speaks to the local gentry as an equal. The village laughs at him. They call him mad. He does not care. His empire is real enough to him—and it is the only place where his daughter remains pure, noble, and worthy of his love.

This is Lagerlöf at her most tender and tragic: a novel about the limits of love, the cruelty of poverty, and the strange dignity of a man who would rather be thought insane than accept a world that has broken his heart.

• Published in 1914, called by Lagerlöf herself a "Swedish King Lear"

• A profound meditation on fatherhood, poverty, social judgment, and the line between madness and meaning

• Adapted for film three times: as The Tower of Lies (1925) starring Lon Chaney, again in 1944, and as a Swedish television version in 1992

Available in multiple formats:

• Paperback & Hardcover: Beautifully designed print editions presenting the complete, unabridged text made to last.

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• Audiobook: Professionally narrated, complete and unabridged, available on all major audiobook platforms.

A beautifully crafted edition for your shelf, your device, or your ears, or the perfect gift for anyone who knows that the truest love sometimes wears a crown of rags.

About the Author

Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was a Swedish novelist and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, receiving the award in 1909. She was also the first woman elected to the Swedish Academy, joining in 1914. Born on the Mårbacka estate in Värmland, she drew deeply on the landscapes, folklore, and peasant culture of her native region. Her major works include Gösta Berling's Saga (1891), Jerusalem (1901–1902), and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906–1907). The Emperor of Portugallia (1914) remains one of her most acclaimed and emotionally powerful novels. She died at Mårbacka in 1940.