Pelle the Conqueror

Martin Andersen Nexø

Pelle the Conqueror — Pelle is still just a young boy when his father decides to move them from Sweden to the Danish island of Bornholm in search of riches. Those riches—of course—being nonexistent, they fall into the life of farm laborers. As Pelle grows up among the other lowly and poor residents of the island, their cares and worries seep into him, and he finds himself part of a greater struggle for their dignity. Pelle the Conqueror has been compared to Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in its themes and scope. Nexø was involved in the Social Democratic movement in Denmark, and this work closely follows his journalistic observations of the struggles of the people. It was published in four books between 1906 and 1910, and was immensely popular; the first book in particular is still widely read in Danish schools, and was made into an award-winning 1987 film starring Max von Sydow as Pelle’s father, Lasse. In this Standard Ebooks edition books one and four are translated by Jessie Muir, while books two and three are translated by Bernard Miall.

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