Selma Lagerlof 
Liliecrona’s Home 

At the bottom of the dried out Svartsjo lake (Black Lake) lies the Lovdala Parsonage with its stables and outhouses. There resides the good-hearted, widowed Pastor Lyselius and his beautiful daughter. One day, his new wife arrives and she turns out to be a wicked stepmother. She torments her servants and especially the parson’s daughter, Maia Lisa. We follow Maia Lisa through torments and sufferings where she gets ever new and harder burdens to carry on her weak shoulders. But by her side through it all is clear-eyed Little Maid, who is never afraid to say what she thinks. It is hard to see her stepmother take control Lovdala and to see her father’s his nice personality vanish as he becomes a marionette in his new wife’s hands."Liliecrona’s Home" was first published in Sweden in 1911 and was translated to English by Anna Barwell in 1913. —