One hundred years ago, Selma Lagerl_f became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. She assured her place in Swedish letters with this sweeping historical epic, her first and best-loved novel, and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo to stardom. Set in 1820s Sweden, it tells the story of a defrocked minister named G_sta Berling. After his appetite for alcohol and previous indiscretions end his career, Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate owned by Margareta Celsing, the "Majoress," that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. Berling's defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell against the backdrop of political intrigue at Margareta's estate and the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden.

Selma Lagerl+¦f (1858-û1940) was a teacher in a girl-'s secondary school before she became a full-time writer. She is known the world over for her classic children-'s book The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

Paul Norlen was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prize in 2004. He lives in Seattle.

George C. Schoolfield is professor emeritus of German and Scandinavian literature at Yale.