Literature and Fiction · Paperback

Delight and Danger

Norwegian title: Fryd og fare

Vigdis Hjorth

All passionate reading is unbreakably linked to the readers mind, finding what the reader has a need for to survive and understand more of themselves and the world, no less. Vigdis Hjorth says this in the foreword to this collection of essays, where she discusses books and authors that have had great meaning to her. The authors she writes about are Bertholt Brecht, Tove Ditlevsen, Knut Hamsun, Søren Kirkegaard, Virginia Woolf, Dag Solstad, Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen and Witold Gombrowicz. Vigdis Hjorth has open and brave opinions about literature and the relationship between life and writing, looking for the great questions in her writing.

Vigdis Hjorth has made a selection of good articles that she has written about literature in this book, showing that a warm, cultivated and enthusiastic human can give life and inspiration to learning in a way that machines could never copy. This is a book that takes time to read, but not because it is thick or too full of words. This is because you from time to time have to put the book down and think for a while, have some discussions with yourself about one subject or another. And after winning the discussion, brilliantly of course, you can pick the book back up and let yourself be taken further into literature, with Vigdis Hjorth as your good and wise guide.Odd W. Surén - DAG OG TID

When I read Delight and Danger, I want to write more like Vigdis Hjorth. This book is an inspiring addition to the everlasting discussion about the role of literature.

Toril Moi - MORGENBLADET

Open, thoughtful and elegant. Vigdis Hjorth knows the art of seducing the reader without ever loosing the seriousness out of sight. The result is eleven very good texts about life and literature. Hjorth is concerned with freedom and responsibility, and in her essay about Søren Kirkegaard she weaves her personal experiences together with philosophical insight about daring to live you life outside the pressure of conformity. Vigdis Hjort´s life and literature is in this way an example to look to. The essay collection Delight and Danger remind us that literature in one way or another has to matter to the reader, if it aims at being relevant and interesting. Gro Jørstad Nilsen - BERGENS TIDENDE

Essays without affectationExemplary presentation of writers.Olav Løkken Reisop - DAGBLADET

Blissfully seriousThis essay collection gives good insight into Vigdis Hjorths many passionate literary relationships. The essays shows an author who has a wide register to choose from, and where the erotic is far from supreme, but jus one of many human fields that can be used to enlighten life and understanding more of the self. Turid Larsen - DAGSAVISEN