"The Rattrap" is thought to be one of Selma Lagerlöf's earliest works, likely written in the 1880s. The story was first published in 1933 in Sweden ("Råttfällan") as a part of Lagerlöf's collection of stories, Host. Two years later, the collection was translated into English and published as Harvest. Lagerlöf's training and professional experience as a teacher, place her firmly in a tradition of writing and inventing fables and didactic tales to teach children how to behave and mold them into empathetic young adults.
The text follows a moment in the life of an unnamed vagabond who sells rat traps to scrape by. The vagabond develops a theory that the whole world is comparable to a rat...
