![]() ![]() ![]() Read Victoria by Knut Hamsun with Rakuten Kobo. When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim. Knut Hamsun 3 ePub eBooks Collection. Knut Hamsun - Hunger (tr Sverre Lyngstad).epub Knut Hamsun - Mysteries.epub Knut Hamsun - Victoria (tr Sverre Lyngstad).epub. When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic. Buy the Victoria ebook. Victoria eBook: Knut Hamsun: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store. About Victoria When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love’s predicament in a class-bound society. Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth-century Norway, Victoria follows two doomed lovers through their thwarted lifelong romance. Johannes, the son of a miller, finds inspiration for his writing in his passionate devotion to Victoria, an impoverished aristocrat constrained by family loyalty. Separated by class barriers and social pressure, the fated pair parts ways, only to realize—too late—the grave misfortune of their lost opportunity. Elegantly rendered in this brand-new translation by Sverre Lyngstad, Victoria’s haunting lyricism and emotional depth remain as timeless as ever. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. About Victoria When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love’s predicament in a class-bound society. Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth-century Norway, Victoria follows two doomed lovers through their thwarted lifelong romance. Johannes, the son of a miller, finds inspiration for his writing in his passionate devotion to Victoria, an impoverished aristocrat constrained by family loyalty. Separated by class barriers and social pressure, the fated pair parts ways, only to realize—too late—the grave misfortune of their lost opportunity. Elegantly rendered in this brand-new translation by Sverre Lyngstad, Victoria’s haunting lyricism and emotional depth remain as timeless as ever. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. ![]() ![]() With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. From the Trade Paperback edition. You would think i would have sopped this thing up with a hunk of bread: doomed lovers, the impossibility of communication, the way we hurt the ones we love? That should have karen's stamp of approval all over it. But it's like hamsun took a great idea for literary exploration and then constructed this wooden fence all around the emotional appeal and said 'you are not coming in!' And i'm like, 'dude, come on - just let me care about the characters a little bit'. And hamsun's all 'no way, jose'. S you would think i would have sopped this thing up with a hunk of bread: doomed lovers, the impossibility of communication, the way we hurt the ones we love? That should have karen's stamp of approval all over it. But it's like hamsun took a great idea for literary exploration and then constructed this wooden fence all around the emotional appeal and said 'you are not coming in!' And i'm like, 'dude, come on - just let me care about the characters a little bit'. And hamsun's all 'no way, jose'. So i shrugged and went away. I only read this because it is used in one of the most emotionally wrenching scenes in the kjaerstad trilogy, so you would think this would also drip with melancholy goo. It's good, it is just more restrained in its writing than what i usually go for in this type of narrative. And i have read two other books by him, it's not like i was expecting heaving bosoms and passionate speeches, but i just couldn't find anything to grab onto. They all kind of act like bratty teenagers, whose emotions flail up and down and then end in eye-pokings. It would be comical if it wasn't also so sad. But the bottom line, and this is the bottom line in many books by my beloved thomas hardy as well: why don't you just talk to each other? Without lying?? It would just make everyone happier in the end. That is my lesson to characters everywhere, and it is my advice to you on the internet. ‘ Love became the world’s beginning and the world’s ruler; but all its ways are full of flowers and blood, flowers and blood.’ The passions and desires of young love, and the frustration of love torn apart by society, is a source of considerable energy that has been harnessed by writers through all of history. Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun’s 1898 novella, Victoria, draws on this energy to fuel his unextinguishable prose and return to the theme of doomed love, a theme characteristic of his impressive ‘ Love became the world’s beginning and the world’s ruler; but all its ways are full of flowers and blood, flowers and blood.’ The passions and desires of young love, and the frustration of love torn apart by society, is a source of considerable energy that has been harnessed by writers through all of history. Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun’s 1898 novella, Victoria, draws on this energy to fuel his unextinguishable prose and return to the theme of doomed love, a theme characteristic of his impressive oeuvre. Although this theme was the heart of, Victoria takes a different approach stylistically, poetically, and most of all, in the behavior of the protagonist. Within this tragic tale of two star-crossed lovers, Hamsun explores the complexities, hopes and inevitable destruction of love in a world ordered through social class as he weaves a multi-layered metafictive prose that marks the dawn of a bright new era for his novels. Published only 4 years after, a tragic tale of failed love set in the northern wilderness, Victoria evinced a period of major artistic growth and maturity in Hamsun’s already potent literary pen. According to the excellent introduction provided by translator Sverre Lyngstad, Hamsun wrote in a letter during this period between novels that he had ‘ tired of the novel, [and] always despised the drama,’ so he had taken up writing verse, which he considered ‘ the only literature that is not both pretentious and insignificant, but only insignificant’. The time spent harnessing the power of poetry is immediately apparent from the first page. Having become tighter and slimmed down to near-poetic verse, the prose simply blossoms upon the page. The striking variance in style between his early, gritty, psychologically intense works including and, and later novels such as (a crucial work that, as well as being heralded as his ‘masterpiece’, was cited by the Nobel committee as a primary impetus for awarding him their prestigious prize) seems to meet up and pivot upon this novella. Victoria retained his early themes of doomed love, obsession and focal character with manic dispositions - which still continued throughout his body of work, becoming used more for the traits of supporting characters and secondary plotlines – while striking out into different narrative styles and the more streamlined storytelling that shone best in Growth. Hamsun began to keep dialogue to the bare minimum, a strong departure from the loquacious ravings of Nagel in Mysteries, choosing to supply the gist of conversations and leaving the particulars to be filled in through the creative impulses of the reader. Hamsun was a master of revealing only what was absolutely necessary, which helped to drive his novels forward and give him total narrative control. Even a good deal of the action is revealed after the fact, recounted by the characters in a way that gives rise to suspicions of absolute validity. ‘ Asked what love is, some will say it is nothing but a wind whispering among the roses and then dying down. But often it is like an unbreakable seal that holds for a lifetime, until death. God created it in so many different kinds and has seen it endure or perish’. Doomed love was a favorite theme of Hamsun’s and appears in some for in almost every one of his books and short stories (the short stories in particular show Hamsun sharpening his skills and insight into this topic). In Victoria, the reader watches the doomed dance of two lovers as they waltz through a series of ups and downs. The novella bounces gracefully between intense amorous excitement and disheartened grief and sorrow, as both the imagery and Johannes’ mood is victim to the whims of his beloved. When love is on his side, love is compared to ‘ a summer night with stars in the sky and fragrance on earth’ and Johannes harnesses his joy into frantic writing and singing to the heavens, the latter much to the chagrin of his neighbors, creating an opportunity for Hamsun to allow Johannes to tell of his off-stage escapades in artistically expressive and exaggerative language. In these manic, feverish states, he can live, eat and drink off the feasts of love, ‘ coatless, he looks out on the world like a half-clothed madman who has gotten drunk on happiness during the night’. However, when love is withheld, the world around him is bleak and love is only as pleasant as ‘ ugly toadstools’. When Victoria implies that social class and social expectations make any union of their hearts impossible, revoking any possibilities of a future between them after days before having pledged her love to him, Hamsun sets Johannes off down a dingy street lined with impoverishment to highlight these social conditions. Unlike the protagonists in Hamsun’s previous novels, Johannes has a steadier grip of his faculties and does not lash out irrationally despite dipping, or elevating, himself into feverish moods. In fact, the central scene of the novel displays Johannes in a calm, sociable demeanor during a party, a scene in other novels where disaster and outlandish behavior was certain to erupt. Johannes takes compliments and aggression with class and dignity, being the one who comes out smelling of roses. Perhaps this reflects upon the character of Hamsun. There is a strong autobiographical aspect to many of his novels, and his early works which document the rise and fall of irrational moods and behavior may have been a method through which Hamsun was able to step back and observe himself from an outsider’s vantage point in an attempt to gain some insight into his own character. Having aged in experience and wisdom, such irregular nuances may have dulled leading to a more composed and collected protagonist. Little hope for a sustainable happiness is to be found from the story of Johannes and Victoria as Hamsun further emphasizes his jaded desire to watch love burn in flames than shine with the stars. ‘ That’s the way things are,’ lectures an old poet, ‘ naturally, you don’t get the women you should have’. Yet, somewhere in this bitter fate, there is a bittersweet sense of beauty. In the burden of never obtaining the one we really love, we can forever desire them and remain in the emotionally intense and radiant infatuation stage forever. However, true love is only reached through accepting and wholly embracing the good and bad of a person, making the ‘love’ more obsession than actual love. Either way, this book is a great example of how many of our problems are of our own doing. So many times does the object of desire lay itself at a characters doorstep, only to be turned away to satisfy some inner angst and pride that will be regretted later. When two individuals become a pair, one inevitably seeks the affections of another, newer infatuation. Hamsun displays quite a bit of pessimism towards young love. The author was quite the wanderer in the younger half of his life, much like most of his protagonists, and was very popular with women. As this was how he understood life, his protagonists are always graced with the same attractive force, even when they are as famished and foul as Hunger’s narrator. The brief and many affairs he may have encountered or observed in his travels must have given him this outlook, and the apparent heart-breaker status of his that can be read between the lines of his books may be the driving force of creating so many characters just to watch their hearts crumble. The passion and the devastation of his tragic romances are sure to ring true in the hearts of an empathetic reader. Through the use of what describes as ‘free indirect narration’ in, Hamsun skillfully threads the non-participatory narration with Johannes participatory observations and opinions, dipping in an out of his head with a clever word choice, exclamatory phrase within the larger sentence or brief interjection of perspective. Take, for example: ‘ The starlings were chattering from the branches above their head. Well and good. God grant them a long life He had made a speech for her at dinner and torn his heart out; it had cost him dearly to correct and cover up her impertinent interruption, and she hadn’t even thanked him. She had picked up picked up her glass and taken a draft. Look at me, see how prettily I drink[sic]’ Johannes and the narrative voice are threaded so tightly you can pass over the seams without even noticing Hamsun has gone back and forth between third and first person perspectives. It is especially difficult to readily deduce as Johannes is a poet and author, and what the reader may first attribute to Hamsun as a poetic turn of phrase or choice of word really belongs to Johannes. This affords the novella its vast prose and poetical form and allows lenience and forgiveness for turning to such exaggerated flowery language. The metafictive duality of the novel is served through the technique as well. We have Hamsun, a writer creating a novel with traces of autobiography about a writer with similar traits who takes the loves and losses from his own life and molds it into his own poetry and novels. Through the small but exquisite samples of Johannes own work, we see Hamsun writing poetry in full-fledged Norwegian romantic-style that retells the recent events of Johannes life, contained within a novel that serves as a poetical literary concoction of events from Hamsun’s life. The meta-language of Victoria comes in many, many layers. Sverre Lyngstad seems to be one of the better, if not the best, english translators of Hamsun's work. After sampling a few other translations through reading several other Hamsun novels, Lyngstad seems to enact the best balance of flow, prose, and accessible syntax. As an added bonus, his introductions are always stuffed with excellent biographical knowledge and viewpoints on the novel. However, the reader should be warned that the 'introduction' would better serve as an 'afterword' as they are rampant with spoilers and other various plot points that could really ruin the book. While this book did not strike me quite as powerfully as his others, notably Pan, with which is it best compared to, Victoria shows the Norwegian novelist at a crucial turning point in his career and is a short, sharp and intense work that highlights and amplifies many of the themes from its predecessors. While Pan offered more of the emotionally charged and ambiguous behavior that bound Hamsun’s novels forever to my heart, mind and soul, Victoria provides an impressive poetic depiction of the emptiness felt when love, which had previously swelled and burst free from the heart, is denied, covered up, or gift-wrapped and given to someone detestable. This book invokes true, uncomfortable feelings, yet delivers them so exquisitely that we can only be comforted and left desiring more. 3.75/5 I would recommend starting with. When he grew up he wanted to be a diver. That was a sure thing. Then he would go down into the ocean from the deck a ship and come to strange lands, to kingdoms with swaying forests, vast and mysterious, and with a coral palace on the ocean floor. And the princess waves to him from a window and says, Come in! Johannes is a bright young boy with a vivid imagination growing up in a poor household near the sea. His dreams alternate between adventure and romance, fueled by the passing ships and by When he grew up he wanted to be a diver. That was a sure thing. Then he would go down into the ocean from the deck a ship and come to strange lands, to kingdoms with swaying forests, vast and mysterious, and with a coral palace on the ocean floor. And the princess waves to him from a window and says, Come in! Johannes is a bright young boy with a vivid imagination growing up in a poor household near the sea. His dreams alternate between adventure and romance, fueled by the passing ships and by the beautiful daughter of the local gentry, living in the 'Castle' as the fishermen and peasants call the town manor. At the end of the nineteen century social norms ensued the two young people could not even think about the possibility of love between so wide apart backgrounds. Yet love is ruled by emotion and not logic. If she just knew how completely, beyond words, he was hers every minute of his life! He would be her servant and slave, sweeping a path before her with his shoulders. And he would kiss her tiny shoes and pull her carriage and lay the fire for her on cold days. He would lay her fire with gilded wood. Ah, Victoria! Nineteen years old Johannes is so eloquent in his internal monologues, and so shy when it comes to actually woo his young princess. The years pass and Victoria remains as inaccessible as the mermaid princess of his childhood dreams. Yet Johannes escapes the confines of century old hard work and goes to study in the capital, becoming a poet and novelist, his sensibility and imagination breaking the social barriers that held him down in the past. But can he put his popularity and his skill with the written word in the service of his quest for Victoria? What was love? A wind whispering among the roses, no, a yellow phosphorescence in the blood. Love was a hot devil's music that set even the hearts of old men dancing. It was like the marguerite, which opens wide as night comes on, and it was like the anemone, which closes at a breath and dies at a touch. Such was love. Past misunderstandings, family pressure and their own timidity drive the passion of these two young people over the cliff and into tragedy. Love is pain, seems to be the major theme of Knut Hamsun's delicate and moving evocation of young love, yet for me this first foray into his work was a thing of beauty, a gem of a story that I would gladly add to my growing list of romantic novellas about youth and love (Dostoyevsky's 'White Nights', Turgheniev's 'First Love', Conrad's 'Youth', Mishima's 'Sound of the Waves' and so on) His heart is full, and his brain is like an unharvested wild garden in which vapors are rising from the earth. In some mysterious way he has come to a deep, deserted valley where no living thing can be found. In the distance, alone and abandoned, an organ is playing. He walks closer, he examines it; the organ is bleeding, blood flows from its sides as it plays. The odds were that I wouldn't like this book. It had many of the features I found fault with in the contemporary bestseller 'One Day' by David Nicholls: a frustrating main character who falls deeply and irrevocably in love with someone clearly unsuitable who doesn't initially return his regard; many occasions when the pair might have come together but were prevented by misunderstandings and other frustrating circumstances; in short, too much melodrama right up to the very end. So why did I like The odds were that I wouldn't like this book. It had many of the features I found fault with in the contemporary bestseller 'One Day' by David Nicholls: a frustrating main character who falls deeply and irrevocably in love with someone clearly unsuitable who doesn't initially return his regard; many occasions when the pair might have come together but were prevented by misunderstandings and other frustrating circumstances; in short, too much melodrama right up to the very end. So why did I like it so much? The simplicity of the style, the poetic quality of the writing and the intensity of the hero's emotional life. I will definitely read more of Hamsun's work. A small share in my positive response must go to the fine presentation of this Condor Book, the full colour reproduction of 'Moonlight' by Edvard Munch on the cover, the high quality paper, the bold font and the broad margins which reduce the words per page and make the reading experience very pleasant indeed. Imagine love in its complicated state, love as a psychological battle: dreamlike and disappointing; love that never materializes into a relationship, never fully processed; love poured into the literary art as a parallel to love that cannot be. For this isn't simply air-brushed romance, this has melancholy imbued. Oh Johannes, he who initially exists in his semi-delirious happy frame of mind, in his dream world of love proclamation. She loves him? She loves him not? Victoria lives in a castle and Imagine love in its complicated state, love as a psychological battle: dreamlike and disappointing; love that never materializes into a relationship, never fully processed; love poured into the literary art as a parallel to love that cannot be. For this isn't simply air-brushed romance, this has melancholy imbued. Oh Johannes, he who initially exists in his semi-delirious happy frame of mind, in his dream world of love proclamation. She loves him? She loves him not? Victoria lives in a castle and he is the neighborhood kid who helps with errands. She must marry someone who can provide for her, who can buy and maintain her father's castle. But he doesn't know this. Or maybe he does and chooses to ignore this major hurdle - dreamer he is and all. She loves me not? What was love? A wind whispering among the roses, no, a yellow phosphorescence in the blood. Love was a hot devil's music that set even the hearts of old men dancing. It was like the marguerite, which opens wide as night comes on, and it was like the anemone, which closes at a breath and dies at a touch. Johannes writes at night, when the world is asleep and the train's whistle is his alarm clock. He could not become a part of Victoria's world based on his lineage, but he could infuse himself and his thoughts into that world through the written word. Soon, he becomes the poet to be celebrated. The man who once ran errands soon becomes a guest at the elaborate dinner parties. But what happens when your heart's desire is simply unattainable? A love for the style Hamsun employs in this piece is one that could be debatable. Before he wrote Victoria and after he wrote Pan, Hamsun expressed in a letter how he was tired of the novel and wanted to write verse. This book, some argue, was his attempt to do just that: Alas, love turns the human heart into a mildewed garden, a lush and shameless garden in which grow mysterious, obscene toadstools. I wonder if I should have been introduced to Hamsun through his breakthrough novel, instead. Yet there is something to be said about starting with a writer's body of work that is somewhat an elegy on love. Victoria at times is a muddle of past and present tense, those slight parallelism annoyances that occur in the midst of sentences and paragraphs, but its best moments are when it captures love through a meandering mosaic, albeit clipped at times. The streets are alive through Johannes's observations, when those minute details the average observer misses suddenly become lucid. Hamsun's scholar makes a good point about this read when he writes: 'The point here is.to show, by indirection, the phases of Johannes's consciousness as he struggles to recover from his grievous disappointment.' Suppose you met someone when you were young, and something happened that convinced you beyond reasonable doubt that they loved you, and you loved them. And then, suppose that there were all sorts of practical problems, and that, on the rare occasions when you did meet them, you said the wrong thing, or they said the wrong thing, and people were hurt, or lost their tempers, and you started to wonder if you'd just hallucinated it all. And that this continued for your whole life. Well, if you've eve Suppose you met someone when you were young, and something happened that convinced you beyond reasonable doubt that they loved you, and you loved them. And then, suppose that there were all sorts of practical problems, and that, on the rare occasions when you did meet them, you said the wrong thing, or they said the wrong thing, and people were hurt, or lost their tempers, and you started to wonder if you'd just hallucinated it all. And that this continued for your whole life. Well, if you've ever had that kind of experience, you might like Victoria, a long, elegantly written prose-poem which pretty much does for hopeless love what Hunger does for being hungry. Wrap it up with a red bow, and give it to a carefully selected person as an unusual Valentine. I read this novel in the Eighties. Victoria is one of the most beautiful short novels in Literature. Though titled Victoria, the protagonist is Johannes, the miller's son. He is a boy who wants to work in a match factory because, “he could get sulphur on his hands so that nobody would dare to shake hands with him”. Later, as a man, he spends his nights writing epic poetry, capping a productive session with loud singing that wakes his neighbours. Johannes is proud to know the stones and the stream I read this novel in the Eighties. Victoria is one of the most beautiful short novels in Literature. Though titled Victoria, the protagonist is Johannes, the miller's son. He is a boy who wants to work in a match factory because, “he could get sulphur on his hands so that nobody would dare to shake hands with him”. Later, as a man, he spends his nights writing epic poetry, capping a productive session with loud singing that wakes his neighbours. Johannes is proud to know the stones and the streams; he looks after birds and trees and scares himself into believing there is an ogre in a nearby cave. As a child he befriends Ditlef and Victoria, son and daughter of the socially aristocratic but economically destitute Lord of the village. He loves Victoria the way a tree loves the sun – eternally, its branches outstretched not to touch but to bask in the radiance of the light. Victoria, however, is forced into marriage with Otto, an upstart aristocrat with a poorer lineage but a great deal of money. Johannes loves from afar, and Victoria – does she love him at all? Early on, as Johannes stretches his poetic wings, he muses that love is “like the anemone which closes at a breath and dies at a touch”. The novel utilises this concept again and again as first Johannes, and then Victoria, engage in a series of miscommunications, missed opportunities, and harsh words. When Johannes love is in the ascendancy, Victoria brushes him off. Later, she is contrite and declares her affection, but he is hurt and acts cold. The characters are of such a piece that they could love no other, but their equally vast capacity for stubborn indignation ensures they will remain apart. For Hamsun, love – or even the true essence of a character's personality – is something that exists in bursting spasms of exertion and then fades to cold metal. A character may go months, or even years, being sullen and vindictive, only to suddenly shine with frenzied emotion. What is more, the psychology of a character is something personal and private – their rich inner life is shown to others as a series of grunts and rejection. Johannes and Victoria both share these qualities, and are drawn to the other because of this. To the outside world both seem aloof and cold. Emotion lies dormant until it flares into life, but even then these flares are often hidden from everyone except the individual themselves. Johannes, for example, gloats that he has written Victoria's name on the ceiling of his room, so that he can stare at it and love her from afar. But, he is quick to tell her, he wrote the name so small that not even the cleaning lady can tell it is there. For Johannes it is enough that he knows, his secret a bludgeon to strike the outside world with, only they do not know it. Victoria is much the same, revealing to Johannes when they are much older that she used to walk home the long way every day simply because she knew it was the way he liked to walk, only she never told anyone, not even him. What can we make of these acts of devotion that are hidden from everyone? Hamsun asks that we make everything of it, but that we keep it to ourselves. Toward the end of this short work, a story is told in miniature of a couple that have loved one another their entire lives. When the husband is struck ill and becomes sickly, he demands his wife leave him, because he has become hideous. In response she hacks away at her 'golden' hair, making herself as ugly as he. Later, when she is sick, she demands the same, but he instead goes to the bathroom and splashes acid on his face, ruining his features so that they can remain together, uniquely one. This short story is the larger work written again, as Victoria and Johannes hurt first the other, and then themselves, again and again throughout their lives. They can never be happy, but their happiness comes from the secret love they – not share, because sharing would ruin it – but possess. Victoria is a short novel, but its themes are large. As much as the novel is a story of obsession and possession thwarted, it also manages to include much on the then-relevant issue of love between different classes. Johannes, though he becomes a celebrated poet, will never be the social equal of Victoria, and both know it. This adds poignancy to their love, and a valuable (to the characters) sense that they will never truly be together. The characters are written sharply, which renders their love quarrels painful to the reader. It is clear from the first few pages that happiness is not possible for either of them. Victoria muses at one stage that Johannes must be doing alright because he mentions that he is dealing with only 'the small sorrows'. That she expects a person must always live with any sorrow at all suggests much about her character, and that Johannes is, in his way, content with these 'small' sorrows suggests just as much about his. They are lovers in a sense, but lovers who can never consummate physically what they so fervently express in secret to themselves. There are some books that have a lasting impact on one’s life, books that leave an indelible mark on one’s deepest emotions. For me there are a number, but Victoria by Knut Hamsun occupies a special place as the most captivating and heart-breaking love story ever written. I read it in my mid-teens, in the full flood of my most romantic period. It’s a short novel; I finished it in less than two hours in a single sitting, overwhelmed by the poetic intensity of the prose, overwhelmed by the story o There are some books that have a lasting impact on one’s life, books that leave an indelible mark on one’s deepest emotions. For me there are a number, but Victoria by Knut Hamsun occupies a special place as the most captivating and heart-breaking love story ever written. I read it in my mid-teens, in the full flood of my most romantic period. It’s a short novel; I finished it in less than two hours in a single sitting, overwhelmed by the poetic intensity of the prose, overwhelmed by the story of Victoria and Johannes, two people put on earth to love one another. They do, but there is no happy ending; events, social class, expectations, a sense of duty and circumstances all get in the way. It’s a story of love only fully declared in death, only fully revealed in an ending that absolutely numbed me, reduced me to uncontrollable tears. I’ve now read it again, though I never thought I would; the first time was painful enough. But it came up in a discussion recently, so I decided to take the risk, if risk is the right word, with the aim of refreshing my memory and adding this appreciation. I did not recapture the same raw emotions, knowing what was to happen, knowing the course planned by fate and the writer. Besides, I’m older, a little more controlled, not quite so ready to give over to same teenage passions. Wellthat’s not entirely true. There may not have been the same quantity of tears, but there were tears, terrible sadness over beautiful and frustrated love. If you know Hamsun’s work you will know just how wonderfully he writes, how lyrical and poetic his prose. There are some passages that just leap out, memorable and brief. Here are a few of my favourites; The days came and went: mild, lovely days filled with the bliss of solitude and with sweet memories of childhood – a renewed call to the earth and the sky, the air and the hills. If she only knew that all his poems had been written to her and no one else, every single one, even the one to Night, even the one to the Spirit of the Swamp. But that was something she would never know. What, then, is love? A wind whispering among the roses – no, a yellow phosphorescence in the blood. A danse macabre in which even the oldest and frailest hearts are obliged to join. It is like the marguerite which opens wide as night draws on, and like the anemone which closes at a breath and dies at a touch. Such is love. It is strange to think that all I’ve ever managed to do was to come in to the world and love you and now say goodbye to life. Their days came and went; they came close, but they never managed to blend; there is too much misunderstanding, too many things left unsaid. So, yes, you’ve probably been here before, you will know the mood – it’s a story of unrequited love, Norwegian echoes of Romeo and Juliet, of Heathcliff and Cathy. In its directness and simplicity Victoria is a peerless story of an imperfectly perfect love, one that will remain with me forever. This is a very slim novel, and it tells a story that had been told a great many times over the years – the story of young lovers from different classes, pulled together by love but pulled in different directions by life – but it is so well told and so distinctive the I found it irresistible. Vitoria and Johannes had always known each other. She was daughter of a wealthy landowner, he was the son of a miller, and their paths crossed whenever Victoria’s family visited their country estate. Johannes This is a very slim novel, and it tells a story that had been told a great many times over the years – the story of young lovers from different classes, pulled together by love but pulled in different directions by life – but it is so well told and so distinctive the I found it irresistible. Vitoria and Johannes had always known each other. She was daughter of a wealthy landowner, he was the son of a miller, and their paths crossed whenever Victoria’s family visited their country estate. Johannes would always be called to row the children of the family to the island where they could run, explore, do whatever they wanted. Johannes wanted to join in their adventures. There were so many things that he could show them in the country side that he loved and knew so well. But they didn’t want him; he was only there to row and to mind the boat. He tried, but every time he tried the boys knocked him back, and so he began to write stories in his head; stories where he was the hero, he saved them from disaster, he won the heart of Victoria. He knew that Victoria wanted him to be part of the group but that she had to give way to the boys. She didn’t say anything, of course she couldn’t say anything, but he could see it in her eyes and in her demeanour. Johannes was sent to school in the city and then he only saw Victoria when he came home in the summer, but his love for her never faded. He loved her, but he could never be sure that she loved him. He continued to write to express his feelings, and in time he would become a very successful author. Johannes and Victoria met again, and when they spoke they learned that they loved each other. But their situation was complicated. Victoria’s family’s fortune had faded, and her parent’s future depended on her making an advantageous match. Would there be a happy ending. Sometimes I thought yes, and sometimes I thought no. The love story is beautifully wrought; it rises and it falls and it catches every emotion of these star-crossed lovers quite beautifully. There were times when it felt a little like a fairy story but there were times when it felt wonderfully and painfully real. I saw the influence of older stories in some lovely touches, and there were also touches that made me think of much more modern stories. The stories that Johannes wrote caught his emotions, and there were times when I wondered which was the story and which – if any – was the reality. In the end there could be no doubt. For a moment the story faltered, but the ending found the magic that had illuminated this little book again. I don’t know about the author to put this book into context. I can just say that it is a very readable book, that what is distilled into this novel many authors would have made into a much bigger book, and that I liked it very much. Other than a vivid drowning rescue and some sadsack suggestions about true love, this is simply flat. Sucky compared to his better known novels -- a dull, poorly characterized (can't picture these characters other than Johannes and his tan wrists), muddy novella at best. One character's head is blown to bits and I didn't care since he made almost no impression. There's an immolation scene too that leads to an inferno but it happens too quickly and reads like bad Gothic lit. Can't believe he wrot Other than a vivid drowning rescue and some sadsack suggestions about true love, this is simply flat. Sucky compared to his better known novels -- a dull, poorly characterized (can't picture these characters other than Johannes and his tan wrists), muddy novella at best. One character's head is blown to bits and I didn't care since he made almost no impression. There's an immolation scene too that leads to an inferno but it happens too quickly and reads like bad Gothic lit. Can't believe he wrote it after 'Pan' and 'Hunger.' Seemed like a rushed, imbalanced first draft. Phoned-in descriptions. I'll read 'Mysteries' but probably won't search out his lesser known stuff if it's like this one. The first time I read Victoria I was 11. Ok, I know, a little young for this type of novel. I remember being able to appreciate the prose, the fluidity of it (at least in Norwegian), but I also remember being irritated at both Johannes and Victoria, not understanding their love or their actions. An 11-year old hasn't typically had the life experience to be able to understand or appreciate this type of work, or at least I certainly hadn't. Not having reread it since, I happened on it as I was or The first time I read Victoria I was 11. Ok, I know, a little young for this type of novel. I remember being able to appreciate the prose, the fluidity of it (at least in Norwegian), but I also remember being irritated at both Johannes and Victoria, not understanding their love or their actions. An 11-year old hasn't typically had the life experience to be able to understand or appreciate this type of work, or at least I certainly hadn't. Not having reread it since, I happened on it as I was organizing my bookcase. I love Hunger/Sult by Hamsun, but was a little wary, thinking Victoria would be too light, somewhat insubstantial. And of course it wasn't. Hamsun isn't the easiest of authors, but that shouldn't stop those of you that have been daunted by his other work (Hunger or Growth of the Soil). This is a beautifully rendered love story, with class differences and poverty at its centre. Just give it a try, and see Manny's review below. Says it all really. A short simple and profound love story which captures the intensity, passion and hopelessness of love; especially young love. The two protagonists Johannes and Victoria fall in love in early teenage and the story develops over a period of years. They manage to hurt each other, be shy, clumsy and avoid sharing their feelings. The language of this book is poetic and lyrical. Reading this as an adult; it was moving, but I wonder how I would have felt about it as a teenager; it may have had a more p A short simple and profound love story which captures the intensity, passion and hopelessness of love; especially young love. The two protagonists Johannes and Victoria fall in love in early teenage and the story develops over a period of years. They manage to hurt each other, be shy, clumsy and avoid sharing their feelings. The language of this book is poetic and lyrical. Reading this as an adult; it was moving, but I wonder how I would have felt about it as a teenager; it may have had a more profound effect. These days I prefer growing old with someone rather than because of someone. I believe this is one of the best love stories in literature and it can easily be read in one sitting.
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