Hans Aanrud's short stories are considered by his own countrymen as belonging to the most original and artistically finished life pictures that have been produced by the younger literati of Norway. They are generally concerned with peasant character, and present in true balance the course and fine in peasant nature. The style of speech is occasionally over-concreted for sophisticated ears, but it is not unwholesome. Of weak or cloying sweetness, so abhorrent to Norwegian taste, there is never a trace. Sidsel Sidsaerk was dedicated to the author's daughter on her eighth birthday, and is...