An English language edition of Gift did not exist until November 2020, 137 years after its original publication, when it was finally translated as a labor of love by aspiring Norwegian writer M. A. Larsen, who self-published the classic novel as an e-book for Kindle under the title Poison.
However, out of sheer politeness and pity, the other townspeople still refer to his mother as "Mrs.," a title typically reserved for married and "respectable" women.
Although Little Marius has a lower social status, he is allowed to attend school with the children from the town's respectable upper class.
His mother Wenche is an idealist who struggles in vain to keep her son honest and upright; she takes her own life after falling pregnant to the businessman Michal Mordtmann.
One of his previous books, Else, en Julefortælling, had been sold under the pretext of being a pleasant, family-friendly christmas book, when in reality, it was highly naturalistic and deemed as inappropriate for children, as it discussed things such as extreme poverty, sexual abuse, abuse of power, and alcoholism.