Alexander Kielland

Gift Alexander Kielland

Gift is an 1883 novel by the Norwegian writer Alexander Kielland. It is an attack on the Norwegian education system, particularly on the obsession with Latin. A schoolboy, Marius, is tormented throughout the first half of the novel by his scholastic inability, and during his final illness continues to murmur rote phrases, his last words being Mensa rotunda. The main character of the book is Marius's friend Abraham Løvdahl, the son of a respected professor. His mother Wenche is an idealist who struggles in vain to keep her son honest and upright; she takes her own life after falling pregnant to the businessman Michal Mordtmann.