Initially rejected by the author's scandalized publisher, Constance Ring is now considered a classic of Scandinavian-and world-literature, a passionate condemnation of marriage and moral hypocrisy that has drawn comparisons to Madame Bovary and The Awakening. The story of a naive young woman who sets out to divorce her loving but adulterous husband, Constance Ring is an intimate portrayal of a vibrant woman's refusal to yield to the forces that constrict women's lives in a society that offers them few choices.

AMALIE SKRAM (1846–1905) is considered one of Scandinavia's major literary figures. Her works caused scandal with their uncompromising views on religion, marriage, and the double standard forced on women. Her other novels include Lucie (Norvik, 2002), and Under Observation (Women in Translation, 1993).

JUDITH MESSICK and KATHERINE HANSON are also the co-translators of Skram's Lucie (Norvik, 2001) and Under Observation (Women in Translation, 1993).

"Need an antidote to the summer trash you were so excited about just a month ago? Meet Constance Ring, a turn-of-the-century Norwegian heroine who has been brought to modern America in superb form by the translators Judith Messick and Katherine Hanson. . . . [H]er struggle is as moving today . . . as it must have been when the novel was first published in 1885." —New York Times Book Review

"[A] rich, full-sided portrait, and this graceful translation will help insure a place for Constance Ring in the canon of feminist literature." —Seattle Gay News

"Constance Ring is an eloquent attack on the institutions that divide men and women into hostile camps. . . . English-speaking readers are lucky that this memorable character is no longer lost to us." —San Francisco Chronicle