The Story of Gösta Berling

A defrocked priest. A house of fallen cavaliers. And the winter that changed everything.

Selma Lagerlöf's debut novel is a wild, romantic epic of nineteenth-century Sweden—a story of redemption, folly, and the strange beauty of those who have lost everything.

Gösta Berling is a young priest with a brilliant future. He is also a drunk. When his alcoholism leads him to preach a sermon in a drunken stupor, he is defrocked and cast out. Broken and penniless, he wanders the wintry roads of Värmland until he is taken in by the Mistress of Ekeby, a powerful ironmaster who rules over a decaying estate and the collection of fallen gentlemen who live there—the "cavaliers."

Among them are swordsmen, gamblers, poets, and thieves, each exiled from respectable life. Gösta becomes their leader, their poet, their most reckless soul. He falls in love. He betrays. He is betrayed. The cavaliers feast, duel, scheme, and carouse through a series of adventures that read like Nordic fairy tales told by a drunken bard. The novel builds toward a confrontation with the forces of industry, sobriety, and progress—and toward the question of whether a man who has lost everything can ever be worthy of love again.

This is Lagerlöf at her most exuberant and visionary: a novel that blends romance, folklore, and social critique into a story as wild and beautiful as the Värmland forests themselves. The Story of Gösta Berling is a book about the magic of failure, the dignity of the outcast, and the possibility that the most wasted lives may still hold the seeds of redemption.

• First published in 1891, Lagerlöf's debut novel, submitted to a literary contest she won

• Adapted into the 1924 silent film starring Greta Garbo in her breakthrough role

• A foundational work of Swedish romanticism and one of the most beloved novels in Scandinavian literature

Available in multiple formats:

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

• Ebook: DRM-free EPUB compatible with Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, and all major e-readers.

• 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 most magnificent souls are often the most broken.

About the Author

Selma Lagerlöf (1858–1940) was a Swedish novelist and short story writer, 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. The Story of Gösta Berling (1891) was her first novel, submitted to a contest sponsored by the Swedish literary journal Idun. She won the contest and launched her career. Her other masterpieces include Invisible Links (1894), Jerusalem (1901–1902), The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906–1907), The Treasure (1904), and The Emperor of Portugallia (1914). She died at Mårbacka in 1940.