Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=fuUsAAAAMAAJ 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. THE NOVELS OF BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON _Edited by EDMUND GOSSE_ VOLUME XI _THE NOVELS OF_ _BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON_ _Edited by EDMUND GOSSE_ _Fcap. 8vo, cloth_ _Synnöve Solbakken_ _Arne_ _A Happy Boy_ _A Fisher Lass_ _The Bridal March, & One Day_ _Magnhild, & Dust_ _Captain Mansana, & Mother's Hands_ _Absalom's Hair, & A Painful Memory_ _In God's Way_ (2 _vols._) _Heritage of the Kurts_ (2 _vols._) _NEW YORK_ _THE MACMILLAN COMPANY_ THE HERITAGE OF THE KURTS BY BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON _Translated from the Norwegian by_ _Cecil Fairfax_ VOLUME I NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908 _Printed in England_ _All rights reserved_ BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Upon his taking up his residence in Paris, in 1882, Björnson resumed an interest in prose fiction, which he had for so many years abandoned in favour of the drama. There can be no question that he was influenced in this by the successes of Alexander Kielland and Kristian Elster, who had begun to deal with the problems of Norwegian life in the form of short novels, which attracted immense public curiosity. After writing _Dust_ (1882), a very brief episode, Björnson started the composition of his earliest long novel, which he finished and published in 1884, as _Det flager i Byen og paa Havnen_ ("Flags are Flying in Town and Harbour"), a title for which we have ventured to substitute, as more directly descriptive, _The Heritage of the Kurts_. It is to be observed that, with the exception of Jonas Lie's _Livsslaven_ (which was not yet published when Björnson's book was begun), _The Heritage of the Kurts_ was the earliest novel, treating Scandinavian society on a large scale, which any Norwegian writer had essayed to produce. This may explain a certain cumbrousness in the unwinding of the plot, which has been noted as a fault in this very fine and elaborate romance.