Project Gutenberg 2025-07-19 Public domain in the USA. 154 Meriläinen, Heikki 1847 1939 Merilainen, Heikki Vitsa-Matti : $b Tosiperäinen kertomus $aHelsinki :$bYrjö Weilin, $c1904. Juhani Kärkkäinen and Tapio Riikonen "Vitsa-Matti : Tosiperäinen kertomus" by Heikki Meriläinen is a novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Matti, the pampered only son of a wealthy farm, whose parents forbid his match with the poor but capable Sohviija, driving him into a wandering life that ends in his becoming the district flogger. Rooted in rural Finnish life and billed as a “true story,” it explores class pride, authority, and the cost of survival. Readers can expect a stark, morally knotty tale where love, shame, and power collide—and where Matti’s bond with Sohviija endures in complicated ways. The opening centers on Matti’s courtship of Sohviija, his parents’ fierce opposition, and the painful breakup that follows, after which he feigns madness, disappears, and lives for years as an unrecognizable beggar. Returning incognito, he learns the old flogger has died and secures that post, soon administering a brutal public whipping to a notorious thief, which cements his reputation. Years later he regularly brings money and clothes to the now-widowed Sohviija and her children, hinting that they would have been happier together. A failed harvest then traps Sohviija in a predatory “lease” that lets a grasping farmer seize her only cow; she steals it back, Matti secretly funds her, and the scene ends as the farmer arrives with the authorities to reclaim the animal. (This is an automatically generated summary.) 20250703234252merilinen 1904 FI Reading ease score: 36.9 (College-level). Difficult to read. fi Finnish fiction -- 20th century PH Text Category: Novels 180490 2025-07-30T08:35:09.611344 text/html 141874 2025-07-30T08:35:15.660359 application/epub+zip 143931 2025-07-30T08:35:12.482332 application/epub+zip 126293 2025-07-30T08:35:11.375390 application/epub+zip 278443 2025-07-30T08:35:17.940369 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 265441 2025-07-30T08:35:14.868350 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 160690 2025-07-30T08:35:09.338384 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 140959 2025-07-19T13:13:46 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 12826 2025-07-30T08:35:18.114322 application/rdf+xml 15100 2025-07-30T08:35:11.870336 image/jpeg 3723 2025-07-30T08:35:11.627343 image/jpeg 142626 2025-07-30T08:35:09.627393 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog fi.wikipedia