In 1905, at age twenty-three, Sigrid Undset gathered up the pages of her first completed book, Aage Nielssøn til Ulvholm, a lengthy historical novel set in 13th-century Denmark, and traveled from Oslo to Copenhagen. There she presented her manuscript to Peter Nansen, head of the prestigious Danish publishing house Gyldendal Forlag, with the hope that he would accept it for publication. Undset had spent several years writing and rewriting this book, after discarding an earlier attempt at a medieval novel.

Read the entire excerpt.