After her marriage she tries to do penance for the wrong she has
done him by being, as she fancies, a model wife. But by submission and
self-extinction, so alien to her character, she arouses his suspicion
that she has something on her conscience; and, in his feeling of
outrage, he begins to neglect and abuse her. When, at last, his
maltreatment reaches a climax, she arises in all the dignity of her
womanhood, and asserts her true self. Then comes reconciliation,
followed by a united life of true equality and loving comradeship.
Such a mere skeleton of a plot can, of course, give no conception of the
wealth of vivid details with which the book abounds. There is, however,
a certain air of effort about it, of a strenuous seriousness, which is,
I fancy, the temperamental note of this author.
"The Pilot and his Wife" besides reviving Lie's popularity also served
to define his position in Norwegian literature. He had at first been
assigned a definite corner as the "poet of Nordland," but his ambition
was not satisfied with so narrow a province.
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