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''The Emigrants'' is the collective name of a series of four novels by the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg: *''The Emigrants'' (1949) *''Unto a Good Land'' (1952) *''The Settlers'' (1956) *''The Last Letter Home'' (1959) The Swedish titles are: ''Utvandrarna'' (''The Emigrants''), ''Invandrarna'' (''The Immigrants''), ''Nybyggarna'' (''The Settlers'') and ''Sista brevet till Sverige'' (''The Last Letter to Sweden''). All books have been translated to English. The novels are generally considered to be among the best pieces of Swedish literature. ==Plot== :''For longer descriptions, see the individual pages of each novel.'' The novel-series describes the long and strenuous journey for a party of emigrants from the province of Småland, Sweden, to the United States in 1850, coinciding with the beginning of the first significant wave of immigration to the United States from Sweden. The story focuses primarily on Karl Oskar Nilsson and his wife, Kristina Johansdotter, a young married couple who live with their four small children; Anna, Johan, Lill-Marta and Harald, as well as Karl Oskar's parents and his rebellious younger brother Robert, who works as a hired farmhand for neighboring farmers. The family lives on a small farm at Korpamoen, where the soil is thin and rocky, making growing crops extremely difficult. It is Robert, together with his friend Arvid, who first comes across the prospect of going to America after being tired of being mistreated by the farmers who employ him. When he confronts Karl Oskar about the idea, Karl Oskar reveals that he too has come across pamphlets describing conditions in North America for farmers as being much better. Kristina, however, is adamantly against emigrating, not wanting to leave her homeland or wanting to risk the lives of her children by taking them across the ocean. However, things take yet another tragic turn for the family which causes Kristina to reconsider. In the winter of 1849, on the day of the christening of their youngest child, Harald, Kristina is preparing a large bowl of barley porridge. Their eldest child, four-year-old Anna, determined to have some even after being told she cannot, goes into the cellar where it is left to cool and helps herself to a very large amount of it, so much that she falls terribly ill from it. Karl Oskar and Kristina send for Beata, a healing woman from Idemo, who upon seeing Anna tells them that after consuming so much porridge, Anna's stomach had burst. The child lingers in agony through the night before dying early the following morning, after which Kristina agrees for them to make the journey to America. In their preparation for their emigration to the United States, Karl Oskar, Kristina, their three remaining children and Robert are joined by Kristina's uncle and aunt, Danjel and Inga-Lena Andreasson and their four children. Danjel, a preacher of the Akian sect, had suffered relentless persecution under the hands of the local parish, and was seeking the religious freedom promised in the United States. He was joined by a dependent of his following, Ulrika of Vastergohl, a former prostitute seeking to start a new life for herself and her illegitimate teenage daughter Elin, away from her dark past. Along with Ulrika and Elin, Danjel had also agreed to pay Arvid's passage to America after hiring him as a farmhand. The party was finally joined by Jonas Petter, a friend of Karl Oskar who was fleeing an unhappy marriage. The party disembarks for the Swedish port city of Karlshamn, on the Baltic coast, where they board the brig ''Charlotta'', bound for New York with emigrants. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Emigrants (novels)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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