Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Jewel
Knut Hamsun has sometimes been described as the Thomas Hardy of Scandinavian literature, and the theme of Victoria- love between two people of different social classes- is one which Hardy treated several times. Here the protagonists are Johannes, the son of a miller, and Victoria, the daughter of the local squire, who meet and fall in love as children. Although they continue to love one another throughout their lives, they are separated by circumstances and the story ends tragically.

The forces that conspire to thwart their love are more complex than simple snobbery or class-distinction. During the period in which the book is set (the 1890s), the marriage of an internationally successful author (which Johannes becomes in adult life) to the daughter of a minor nobleman would not have raised too many eyebrows in society. Although Victoria's family are aristocratic, however, they are not wealthy; indeed, they are in desperate financial straits and need to secure a financially advantageous marriage for their daughter to re-establish their fortunes and to restore the Castle, as their crumbling manor-house is called. She is therefore pressurised, much against her will, to become engaged to Otto, the son of a wealthy official at the Royal Court, even though she does not love him. Johannes also enters into an unsuccessful engagement with another woman; only at the end of the novel, when it is too late, do Victoria and Johannes discover how much they mean to each other.

This could easily be the plot of a Hardy novel, but Hamsun tells this story in a style which is very different to Hardy's. Hardy's novels are generally complex, discursive and with a large cast of characters both major and minor. Victoria is a very short novel (at 170 pages much shorter than any of Hardy's), told in a simple and direct manner and concentrating very much on the two lovers. The other characters are not developed in any detail, with the partial exception of Otto, who is presented as an arrogant and unpleasant lout.

Although the story is told in a straightforward manner, this does not mean that the prose is plain or unadorned. Although this is a third-person narrative, the action is mostly seen from the viewpoint of the poet Johannes and narrated in an appropriately poetic style. (This, at least, is the effect of Oliver Stallybrass's translation; I do not speak Norwegian so I cannot compare it with the original). The lyricism of the writing complements the pathos of the loves' plight; the result is a book that can be compared to a jewel, small, but beautiful and highly polished. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The grand finale of a life's work
It was with a sad mind I closed this final book by Hamsun, having now read through it all. This is his answer to the World post-45, in essence telling them "hah, you did your best, but history will name me victor". The book is written after his capture and "imprisonment" at then hands of the "Allies'" dupes, the Norwegian "resistance". He was put away in old people's homes, and insane asylums, all to break his resistance and will-to-life. Turns out, the over 80 year old man just wouldn't die, so they could avoid an uncomfortable trial.

We read of his mistreatment and abuse at the hands of the staff, but also small flashes of light from various people around the world. One of the episodes that struck me was that once a week a young man in his 30's came to pick up his mother, who was a co-resident at the old people's home with Hamsun, the mother always turned her head when they passed Hamsun, to avoid greeting him, unlike the son, who would smile and say hello. Hamsun was at this point nearly deaf, but eventually he felt the need to clarify to the young man in his unmistakeable Hamsun-way, that he was supposedly an evil man, imprisoned for his beliefs. That is when the young man so brilliantly answers; "Just as precious to me!"

Otherwise, the book is filled with the last memories and thoughts of an old man, in large part isolated due to his bad hearing and his fame. It pains me to think of the fact that we treated Scandinavia's possibly biggest author this way, but such is the harsh past. Still, it wouldn't be a book by Hamsun if it wasn't filled with small amusing stories and episodes from his daily life and his past. Nobody gets me laughing the way Hamsun does, he is for sure deserving of his name as the "Great Observer".

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it is one of my favourite books, and in the Hamsun-canon it ranks right up there along with "Hunger", "Victoria" and "Growth of the Soil", in my view. The book ends and his pen get laid down with the words; "Today, the Supreme Court has passed its judgement, and I end my writing".

Read it!

(I read a different edition of the book) ... Read more

Product Description
Grosse Erzahlungen: Victoria - Pan - Schwarmer - Die Nachbarstadt - Vagabundentage by Knut Hamsun. 1977 hardcover. Text in German. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The most beautiful European love-story ever?
This is probably Knut Hamsun's' masterpiece when it comes to love stories, and possibly one of Europe's most beautiful love stories. The book is about the son of the old miller, and the daughter of the local "nobleman", the owner of the "Castle". From they are very small and all the way up until the very end he loves her. The parts where they are in the cave and on the island are so beautiful and melancholic. But he being the miller's son, and her being part of the "upper-class", the love is an impossible one. Various circumstances increase the distance between them, and the impossibility of their love, but I won't reveal much. The story is just so beautiful and sad, that it should be required reading for all.

Then comes the fun part, the author; Knut Hamsun, probably Norway's greatest author of all time, was a die-hard "right-wing" anti-modern conservative. This is quite amusing, because all the liberal and anti-European readers just can't wrap their mind around the fact that a person that wrote such beautiful prose was so "abhorrent" in their twisted view. One of his 5 best books and one whose story you'll carry with you forever. Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition)

The most beautiful European love-story ever?
This is probably Knut Hamsun's' masterpiece when it comes to love stories, and possibly one of Europe's most beautiful love stories. The book is about the son of the old miller, and the daughter of the local "nobleman", the owner of the "Castle". From they are very small and all the way up until the very end he loves her. The parts where they are in the cave and on the island are so beautiful and melancholic. But he being the miller's son, and her being part of the "upper-class", the love is an impossible one. Various circumstances increase the distance between them, and the impossibility of their love, but I won't reveal much. The story is just so beautiful and sad, that it should be required reading for all.

Then comes the fun part, the author; Knut Hamsun, probably Norway's greatest author of all time, was a die-hard "right-wing" anti-modern conservative. This is quite amusing, because all the liberal and anti-European readers just can't wrap their mind around the fact that a person that wrote such beautiful prose was so "abhorrent" in their twisted view. One of his 5 best books and one whose story you'll carry with you forever. Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition)

A tormented first love
"Victoria" is the tormented story of Johannes Moller, the miller's son, and Victoria, a Chamberlain's daughter living at an unnamed Castle. Although they have known each other since their childhood, their love is bound to fail, mainly for social reasons. Victoria's family want her to marry Lieutenant Otto because they need the son-in-law's money to restore their former glory, a marriage of convenience in other words.
Johannes is deeply in love with Victoria, musing about the fragrance emanating from her body, the shape of her shoulders and body. He is driven to despair by Victoria, her shifting mood, saying she loves him but very often refusing to meet him, avoiding him. Johannes has moments of hallucinatory nightmares, seeing strange figures, human heads rolling on the pavement in front of him, voices shouting at him. He is seized by icy fears and sees barking fish...
Johannes also feels that he doesn't fit in Victoria's world and the society of the castle remains distant to him. "My dear young lady, the place is yours, not mine" he tells her. When Johannes meets Lieutenant Otto, Victoria's fiance, a feeling of utter despair descends on him because the reason for Victoria's attachment to Otto is solely due to the fact that he is "well-bred".
A novel of unhappiness, missed opportunities and loneliness occasioned by greed, social pressure and indecisiveness.

First love
"Victoria" is an archetypal love story for young people, one might say. Devoid of carnal connotations, the novel is an eerie, poetic portrayal of the complicated feelings of youth. The desire is never matched by the corresponding action; the lovers confused, unsure, uncertain, longing for explanation that is never offered. Torn apart by contradictory sentiments, they attract their loved ones only to push them apart when they come. "Victoria" is an astonighingly accurate account of budding sensuality and the torment of first love. So many of us have no clue how to tame the soul gone wild; whether to let oneself flow with the current, or swim backwards, against all odds - and more to the point - so many of us have no idea how to react to equally wild and incomprehensible behavior of the loved ones.

"Victoria" is only a minor work of Knut Hamsun, overshadowed by other novels and novellas, but after over a century, it's still fresh enough to charm the young, sensitive people. For me, the experience of rereading this novel after fourteen years feels like a postcard sent from my own self; to be read when I am old and wrinkled. Indeed, I feel like the eldest mushroom in the world, one who has forgotten the first love and how different the air smelled back then...

Unforgettable, Disturbing, A Masterpiece
When people ask me who my favorite writers are, I am increasingly beginning my response with the name of "Knut Hamsun".This book is one of the reasons why.It is truly one of the most moving stories I'veever encountered."Romeo and Juliet" turned backwards andwithout the release of actual declarations of love.Victoria's finalletter to Johannes would make the hardest hearted tyrant break into tears. It's really one of the great injustices of modern literary culture thatstagnant, unrealistic, hackneyed, preachy prose like John Steinbeck andempty glitz like F. Scott Fitzgerald is celebrated in the USA while Hamsunis forgotten.There was a reason why he won the Nobel Prize.I stronglyrecommend this (and all his books)to anyone interested in excellent freeflowing prose with a psychological bent. ... Read more

Product Description
This, the second of a two-volume edition of the selected letters of Knut Hamsun in English translation, follows the career of this major European novelist and writer, from his problem-filled middle life at the turn of the century to his death at the age of 92 in 1952. These letters reveal many aspects of Hamsun's private and public life: the tireless and total dedication to his writing which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1922, the personal anguish and joy which two marriages and a divorce brought him, the strange juxtaposition of the warmly sympathetic and the unexpectedly repellent sides of his personality, and the political defiance of his later years which left him alienated and alone among his fellow countrymen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An amusing but minor work in the Hamsun collection
I couldn't quite decide whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars, but because of the splendid ending I decided to go for 4. The book started out as one of Hamsun's wonderful farm tales, but it soon became evident that it was only for the first pages, then the scenery shifted to a sanatorium for the suicidal, overweight, frail & sick. There aren't really any protagonists in the tale, but a certain half-French woman and the farmer Daniel from a close by farm are most mentioned.

There's not too much to say about the tale, it details the daily life of the sanatorium, and the conflicts that eventually arise there. I found the book to be somewhat unnecessarily long, although Hamsun's hilarious touch is evident throughout in the various conversations. It made me laugh several times, but it is decidedly a minor work compared to many of his previous books. The ending of the book, took me completely by surprise. It rectified the entire theme of decadence and irritating moments in a few pages, as the wicked got their punishment and the narrative really picked up pace.

Recommended for those well-known in the world of Norway's finest "right wing" anti-modern author, but mostly for the completists.

(I read a different edition) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A highly overrated book from the Master himself
Before I started reading this book, I had quite high expectations, considering the level of fame and fuzz this book has caused in Norway. I was quickly disappointed. The main-character of the book, Benoni Hartvigsen (later on, it changes to "Hartwich", once he becomes delusional enough) is extremely annoying and megalomaniac. He is just a postal-worker and fisherman in the small fishing-village of Northern Norway where the setting is, at first. Then, after a random happening involving a Sami, the priest's daughter Rosa and rumours, he's suddenly elevated to a big-shot in the village. His luck goes up and down, and he is taken under the wings of the shopkeeper and mini-king Mister Mack. From there on his rise in the village is ever increasing, but along with it, his extreme tendency to annoy the reader. I won't reveal much more of the book, since I believe its better you read it, if so inclined. The book is very decadent, with infidelity and promiscuity going rampant throughout.

I can't say I really enjoyed the book, and I don't see what all the fuzz was about. It's the first of a twin-book, the second part being "Rosa". It's quite meaningless to read just one of them, but if you want to read good Hamsun-books, then just avoid both of them, since you won't be missing anything great. All in all, one of the books from our anti-liberal "right-wing" conservative author, that you can safely leave out.

(I read a different edition)

Another Winner From Hamsun
Benoni is a wonderful tale set in a small Norweigen village, a frequent setting for Hamsun novels. The book follows the ups & downs of a common resident, who is taken under the wing of the town's richest man. With his rise in the community, Benoni also makes good with the girl of his dreams, Rosa. But one day, Benoni has a bit too much to drink & his tail starts wagging and bragging. Soon word spreads about his drunken scene and his station in the community falls, as does his standing with his beloved Rosa. This is a beautiful work, where Hamsun accentuates seemingly meaningless "trifles", but it's just these trifles that make up our lives & their defining moments. This work is a fine example of Hamsun's mastery of simplicity & understatement. Benoni is an outstanding work coming from one of the greatest authors of all-time. Get it. Read it. You'll love it. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Enjoy Hamsun!
My first comments are directed to the reviewer, Europa, Close to Ultima Thule.Every Hamsun book I look up has a review by this individual.If I have to read once more his / her? objection to promiscuity in Hamsun's books I'll puke all over his /her chastity belt.Does this person think that promiscuity doesn't happen in life, or is he / she just a narrow-minded prig?PEOPLE HAVE SEX!Get over yourself!(Perhaps he /she should stick with Henry James!)And what is this constant refrain about Hamsun the "right-wing" radical?Hamsun's stories don't remotely resemble the views of Rush Limbaugh or Fox News.The reviewer's comments reveal more about the judgmental nature of his / her own religious and political views than they do about Hamsun's books.

One should read Hamsun in order to enjoy his Nordic gallery of ordinary human beings, with all their hopes and fears, strengths and frailties, who are just like the people we encounter every day - and see reflected in the mirror.

Hamsun's follow-up novel in his twin-novel against modernity
We are brought back to Segelfoss in this sequel to "Children of the Age" (Børn av tiden). The old farmlands that once graced the scenery have now been replaced by a budding new town. The lieutenant is nothing but a distant memory now; money and the struggle of the classes rule the day. The half-Mexican children of Herr Holmengrå (the unofficial owner of the town) have become grown ups, and lead their lives here. Felix, the son, has moved back to Mexico to become a sailor amongst his tribe, and Mariane, the daughter, has become an ill-fitting part amongst the upper classes of Segelfoss. Willatz Holmsen the fourth (the son of the aristocratic lieutenant in the prequel) has become an artist, and is a fine representative of the self-destructive will and life that many irresponsible aristocrats lead in the early 20th century.

There's not too much more to say about the tale, it details in Hamsun's wonderful prose the rise and fall of unbridled capitalism. Where the aristocracy once ruled paternalistic and secure to the benefit of all, the age of capitalism has turned the once harmonic society into a respect less battle of all against all. This is Hamsun's second "political" novel, and I must say it is absolutely great in its critique of European society and modernity. The book is a bit longer than its prequel, but well worth your time. Two thumbs up for this wonderful tale from Norway's greatest author, the anti-modern "right-wing" conservative Knut Hamsun.

(I read a different edition) ... Read more