New Releases by Knut Hamsun

Shallow Soil is a novel that examines the complex human interactions and struggles for power in a rural context. Hamsun depicts life in a small Norwegian village, where characters confront their own desires, frustrations, and longings. Through a psychological approach, the work reveals the tension between individual impulses and social expectations, as well as the difficulties of everyday life. Since its publication, Shallow Soil has been recognized for its innovative style and deep analysis of human psychology. Hamsun uses poetic and evocative language to explore the inner lives of his characters, giving them palpable humanity. The novel addresses themes such as alienation, identity, and the struggle for authenticity in a world that often seems hostile. The work remains relevant for its representation of human vulnerability and its critiques of oppressive social structures. By examining the dynamics of power in interpersonal relationships, Shallow Soil offers reflections on the search for meaning and belonging that resonate in contemporary society.

"Growth of the Soil" is a novel by Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. The novel was written in the popular style of Norwegian new realism, a movement dominating the early 20th century. It exemplified Hamsun''s aversion to modernity and inclination towards primitivism and the agrarian lifestyle. "Growth of the Soil" portrays the main protagonist, Isak, and his family as awed by modernity, yet at times, they come into conflict with it. The novel contains two sections entitled Book One and Book Two. The first book focuses almost solely on the story of Isak and his family and the second book starts off by following the plight of Axel and ends mainly focusing on Isak''s family.

Knut Hamsun (4 août 1859 - 19 février 1952) était un écrivain norvégien qui a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature en 1920. L''œuvre de Hamsun s''étend sur plus de 70 ans et montre des variations en ce qui concerne la conscience, le sujet, la perspective et l''environnement. Il a publié plus de 20 romans, un recueil de poésie, quelques nouvelles et pièces de théâtre, un récit de voyage, des ouvrages de non-fiction et quelques essais.

Hunger (Norwegian: Sult) is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun published in 1890. Extracts from the work had previously been published anonymously in the Danish magazine Ny Jord in 1888. The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. Hunger portrays the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous manner.

"Shallow Soil" is a novel by the author Knut Hamsun. The novel is a composite love story in which two parallel love dramas develop and affect two good friends and companions. The story expresses both tragedy and hope.

"Hunger" has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. "Hunger" portrays the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous manner. The novel is loosely based on the author''s own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890. Set in late 19th-century Kristiania (now Oslo), "Hunger" recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis.

In this dreamlike parable from Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, a disenchanted military man and the daughter of a small-town merchant cross paths one day and instantly fall prey to a heated mutual attraction. But can the passionate romance survive their drastically different backgrounds and beliefs?

Knut Hamsun was a major Norwegian author who received the Noble Prize for Literature for his novel Growth of the Soil in 1920. Hamsun''s writing makes excellent use of symbolism. Hamsun saw man and nature united in a strong bond that could almost be considered mystical. Look Back on Happiness begins, "I have gone to the forest...... Not because I am offended about anything, or very unhappy about men''s evil ways; but since the forest will not come to me, I must go to it. That is all. I have not gone this time as a slave and a vagabond. I have money enough and am overfed, stupefied with success and good fortune, if you understand that. I have left the world as a sultan leaves rich food and harems and flowers, and clothes himself in a hair shirt."

The Nobel Prize winner’s poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love’s predicament in a class-bound society A Penguin Classic Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth-century Norway, Victoria follows two lovers whose yearnings are as powerful as the circumstances that conspire to thwart their romance. Johannes, a miller’s son turned poet, finds inspiration for his writing in his passionate devotion to Victoria, a daughter of the impoverished lord of the manor, who feels constrained by family loyalty to accept the wealthy young man of her father’s choice. Separated by class barriers and social pressure, the fated duo hurt and enthrall each other by turns as they move toward an emotional doom that neither will recognize until it is too late. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 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.

First published one hundred years ago, and now translated into English for the first time, In Wonderland is a diaristic account of a trip Hamsun took to Russia at the turn of the century. This detailed travelogue is a rich and loving portrait of the people and culture of Russia, and is filled with the trademark style and keen observations of the author of such classic as Hunger and Growth of the Soil. In Wonderland is unlike any other book by Hamsun, and offers not only an intimate glimpse into the mind of the Nobel Prize-winning author, but also a rare view of pre-revolutionary Russia.

The Last Joy is the final part in Hamsun''s Wanderer Trilogy. With its richly varied contents, this work combines the lyricism of Hamsun''s Pan (1894) and the epic scope of his Nobel prize-winning Growth of the Soil (1917). The middle-aged narrator of this story is a Hamsun double, who leaves the wild, where he has lived in a turf hut, for a tourist resort and, later, the city, where he contacts Miss Torsen, a beautiful young school teacher he met at the resort. He follows her sexual escapades, including rape, with the intense, vicarious interest of a voyeur.

A new edition of Hamsun''s charming novel, related in subject and characters to Under the Autumn Star (Sun & Moon Press).

"In Under the Autumn Star, Nobel prize-winning author Knut Hamsun writes a novel magically permeated with the air and light of fall. The narrator, Knut Pedersen (Hamsun''s real name) first joins forces with Grindhusen, a man blessed with the faith that "something will turn up," and later with Lars Falkenberg, whose dubious talents include the tuning of pianos. Knut and Lars fetch up as workmen on the estate of Captain Falkenberg (no relation to Lars), with whose wife each falls or fancies himself in love - though this does not prevent either from doing "night duties" in other quarters. In time, Knut is laid off and, in futile pursuit of the woman with whom he is by now helplessly infatuated, finds himself sucked back into the city life he had fled."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The antics of Ove Rolandsen, telegraph operator and local Casanova in a fishing village in Norway. He serenades the curate''s wife, fights a drunken giant, but taking on the town''s fish-glue magnate is a more difficult matter. By the winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pan by Knut Hamsun - Classic Knut Hamsun - Translated from the Norwegian of Knut Hamsun By W. W. Worster - With an Introduction by Edwin Bjorkman. Pan is an 1894 novel by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. Writing it while he lived in Paris and in Kristiansand, Norway, Hamsun was directly influenced by the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. It remains one of his most famous works today. Lieutenant Thomas Glahn, a hunter and ex-military man, lives alone in a hut in the forest with his faithful dog Aesop. Upon meeting Edvarda, the daughter of a merchant in a nearby town, they are both strongly attracted to each other, but neither understands the other''s love. Overwhelmed by the society of people where Edvarda lives, Glahn has a series of tragedies befall him before he leaves forever. The changing seasons are reflected in the plot: Edvarda and Glahn fall in love in spring; make love in the summer; and end their relationship in the autumn. The contradicting symbols of culture and nature are important in the novel: Glahn belongs to nature, while Edvarda belongs to culture. Much of what happens between Glahn and Edvarda is foreshadowed when Glahn dreams of two lovers. The lovers'' conversations also foretell the future.

«Nunca el Premio Nobel se ha dado a alguien que lo merezca tanto como Knut Hamsun» THOMAS MANN. Un extranjero llega un día a una pequeña ciudad costera de Noruega. Inmediatamente traba amistad con un loco para que le enseñe los secretos del lugar, quiénes son los hombres y las mujeres que viven en él. El extranjero se enamorará, indagará en las vidas ajenas, convertirá cada hecho cotidiano en una interrogación, en un misterio que acabará por convertirse en la clave de un porvenir que no dejará de recordarle. Pocos libros permiten a su lector entrar en el alma de su creador como Misterios, la novela que anticipó los temas que llevarían la obra de Knut Hamsun a una de las cumbres de la literatura nórdica y a su autor a recibir, en 1920, el Premio Nobel de Literatura.

First published in 1927, this novel focuses on Edevart, an uprooted young Norwegian who is exposed to the corrupting ways of August, a charming scoundrel whose values threaten the stability of society

"On Overgrown Paths" was written after World War II, at a time when Hamsun was in police custody for his openly expressed Nazi sympathies during the German occupation of Norway, 1940-45. A Nobel laureate deeply beloved by his countrymen, Hamsun was now reviled as a traitor--as long as his sanity was not called into question. "On Overgrown Paths" is Hamsun''s apologia. However, the psychiatric report declared him to be sane, but concluded that his mental faculties were "permanently impaired." This conclusion was emphatically refuted by the publication, in 1949, of "On Overgrown Paths," Hamsun''s apologia. In its creative elan, this book, filled with the proud sorrow of an old man, miraculously recalls the spirit of Hamsun''s early novels, with their reverence for nature, absurdist humor, and quirky flights of fancy. This edition is the first authoritative English translation of Hamsun''s last work, a work which stood at the center of the recent film "Hamsun." Knut Hamsun was the greatest 20th century Norwegian novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize, and enormously beloved when the country was occupied in World War II. During the war, however, his wife, a supporter of Quisling and the Nazis, traveled across the country reading from his work, particularly "Growth of the Soil," which seemed to support notions of agrarian return by a superior Aryan peasant class. Old and confused, Hamsun traveled to Germany to meet with Hitler, hoping, he claimed, to change the conditions of occupation in Norway. The meeting ended disastrously, and after the war, Hamsun was arrested for his Nazi sympathy. As this book reveals, however, Hamsun was anything by mentally disturbed. It is a sad and tragic book filled with pained sorrow of an old man, great in stature and contribution, but completely out of touch with his own time.

Hamsun''s attempt to prove his soundness of mind after his sanity was called into question. Writing at the age of 90 it was his last literary work. The short novel is part a fiction pamphlet, part diary, part old man''s apologia and part protest at the court ruling in his 1948 trial, that determined he had "permanently impaired mental abilities".

"They had met during their younger days, he and the widow of Theodore paa Bua. The original fusion of their passion had taken place during a golden opportunity out in the berry field--she had given him a certain look upon leaving the house and he had gone a round-about way and met her. Violence--violence and violation, but so welcome, so unimpeachable. Ay, and their affair had continued without interruption throughout two whole summers and one winter. When they parted, they had had good cause to remember each other and when they met again they had neither of them changed; they were the same mad lovers they had been during their earliest youth."--Goodreads

The Last Chapter is set in the Torahus sanatorium, where the sufferings of most of the patients are related to civilisation. The novel has a group of central characters, but no distinct main character. Among the characters is "The Suicide", who entered the sanatorium following the discovery of his wife’s infidelity and threatens constantly to take his own life. Another guest is the lovely Julie d''Espard. She enters into a relationship with the bogus Count Flemming and gets pregnant. When Flemming disappears one day she turns to Daniel Utby, who runs a small farm near Torahus and who represents the novel’s ideological norm. The Last Chapter is one of Hamsun’s darkest novels. It was written at a time when he was much preoccupied by death. The novel is often compared with Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, which was published the year after.