Summary of Harold Schechter's Hell's Princess

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The city of Chicago was rebuilt after the Great Conflagration of 1871. It drew immigrants from all over the world, and among them were many Norwegians. They were widely regarded as a frugal, industrious, and upstanding people.

#2 The Norwegians in Chicago were very successful, and many emigrated to help build America. They were very proud of their heritage, and would celebrate Norway’s Independence Day, the Viking Mayflower, and the sailing of the dragon-prowed longship Viking across the Atlantic.

#3 The Norwegian population in Chicago was very peaceful and law-abiding, and they were known for their deference to law and order. Brynhild Paulsdatter was one of the most unlovely women in her twenties, but she was still a notable exception to the rule.

#4 Brynhild was a peasant girl in Norway who was extremely malicious and capricious. She had unpretty habits, and was a liar already as a child. She was hired out as a dairymaid at age 14, and her neighbors remembered her as a very bad human being.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822525573

IRB Media

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The city of Chicago was rebuilt after the Great Conflagration of 1871. It drew immigrants from all over the world, and among them were many Norwegians. They were widely regarded as a frugal, industrious, and upstanding people.

#2

The Norwegians in Chicago were very successful, and many emigrated to help build America. They were very proud of their heritage, and would celebrate Norway’s Independence Day, the Viking Mayflower, and the sailing of the dragon-prowed longship Viking across the Atlantic.

#3

The Norwegian population in Chicago was very peaceful and law-abiding, and they were known for their deference to law and order. Brynhild Paulsdatter was one of the most unlovely women in her twenties, but she was still a notable exception to the rule.

#4

Brynhild was a peasant girl in Norway who was extremely malicious and capricious. She had unpretty habits, and was a liar already as a child. She was hired out as a dairymaid at age 14, and her neighbors remembered her as a very bad human being.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The Norwegian emigrants who made the exodus to the New World in the latter decades of the nineteenth century left copious accounts of their arduous journey. It began for many of them with a voyage from Trondheim to the English port city of Hull aboard the steamship Tasso.

#2

Bella, like many other Norwegian immigrants, changed her name to Americanize it. She took in laundry, did piecework sewing, and cleaned homes for meager wages that she handed over to the Larsons for her upkeep. She wanted riches, not just for herself, but also for her children.

#3

Bella and Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson were married in 1884. They had met in 1879 when she was just sixteen years old. He was five years older than her, and worked as the night watchman at the Mandel Brothers department store.

#4

The Sorensons’ life was a blank for the first decade of their marriage. They bought a small candy store in 1894, but it failed to succeed. Bella watched as her money drained away.

#5

In 1897, Bella and Mads became the parents of four more children: Caroline, Myrtle, Axel, and