02621cam a22003133u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003704000110007804100170008905000070010610000340011324500200014726400510016730000470021833600260026533700260029133800360031750000310035350800870038452016630047153400690213465300180220365300240222185600430224599900190228877571UtSlPG20260610134810.0mcr n260607r20251928utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  aUtSlPG 7asv2iso639-1 4aPT1 aAlmqvist, Gertrud,d1875-195410aI tolfte timmen 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2025  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2025-12-30  aJens Sadowski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net  aI tolfte timmen by Gertrud Almqvist is a novel written in the early 20th century. Framed as a backward-moving diary, it follows Ronny (fru Berglöf), a sharp, self-scrutinizing woman entering late middle age, as she wrestles with aging, sexuality, marriage, motherhood, and sanity. Her world orbits a brittle marriage to Albert, a tender yet testing bond with her daughter Viveke, probing sessions with a nerve specialist, and unresolved memories of past love that challenge norms.

The opening of the novel shows Ronny beginning her diary after a devastating birthday, skewering her social circle’s hypocrisies while admitting her own isolation. Medical visits expose exhaustion, fear of becoming “useless,” and a doctor’s clinical framing of her desire; under analysis she revisits a searing attachment to a woman, Carla, a later affair with a married man taken as “anesthesia,” and fleeting thoughts of self-destruction. A women’s club jubilee sparks bitter, hallucinatory reflections on female aging, and a tense morning exchange with Albert lays bare their incompatibilities. On a spring outing, Viveke gently compels honesty: Ronny admits a former love and urges mutual truth, but afterward suffers a panic vision tied to childhood fear. As treatment continues, she slides into a controlled, therapeutic infatuation with the doctor and discovers relief in “letting go of control,” briefly feeling in rhythm with the world. Further sessions probe her shame before her daughter and recall a tolerant confidante, suggesting that judgment and “purity” are often masks for hidden desires. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cStockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 1928  aDiary fiction  aLesbians -- Fiction40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77571  c118291d118291