Toikan Kaaperin muistelmia by Konstu Pellikka
"Toikan Kaaperin muistelmia" by Konstu Pellikka is a novel written in the late 19th century. It portrays the early life of a poor working-class boy, Kaaperi, growing up in a Finnish town, capturing hardship, small joys, and sharp social contrasts through a child’s candid voice. Expect vivid domestic scenes, humor edged with hunger, and the push-and-pull between thrift and temptation in a tight-knit family. The opening of the novel follows Kaaperi’s childhood
in a cramped back room behind a manor amid foul yards and crowded outbuildings. He revels in new boots, plays with neighbor children, and returns to ruisporridge, even inventing a tale about a rat to cover his own eating; later he breaks a window while throwing at a wagtail and receives a mild whipping, after which his mother promises to sew him proper trousers from an old coat. Through meal prayers, tears, and talk of absent butter and sahti, we see the family strain, a protective mother, and a quick-tempered father. As summer comes, debts press, an uncle arrives with a horse (leading to a scuffle with a neighbor boy), and Kaaperi naively feeds his prized bread to the dog and is scolded. At the start of autumn, market day brings a treasured coin, a modest pastry spree, Pekka’s cigar-selling to fund shoes, Kaaperi’s grand dreams of America and a fine horse, and finally the father’s return with a drunken friend, a brush with a policeman, and tense, contentious hospitality that lays bare poverty, pride, and friction at home. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.html.images | 126 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.epub3.images | 121 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.epub.images | 121 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.epub.noimages | 105 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.kf8.images | 267 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.kindle.images | 255 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76497.txt.utf-8 | 107 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/76497/pg76497-h.zip | 121 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Pellikka, Konstu |
|---|---|
| Title | Toikan Kaaperin muistelmia |
| Original Publication | Porvoo: Werner Söderström, 1891. |
| Credits | Tapio Riikonen |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 60.1 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. |
| Language | Finnish |
| LoC Class | PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures |
| Subject | Finnish fiction -- 19th century |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76497 |
| Release Date | Jul 13, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 144 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |