Best Selling Books by Knut Hamsun

One of the most important and controversial writers of the 20th century, Knut Hamsun made literary history with the publication in 1890 of this powerful, autobiographical novel recounting the abject poverty, hunger and despair of a young writer struggling to achieve self-discovery and its ultimate artistic expression. The book brilliantly probes the psychodynamics of alienation and obsession, painting an unforgettable portrait of a man driven by forces beyond his control to the edge of self-destruction. Hamsun influenced many of the major 20th-century writers who followed him, including Kafka, Joyce and Henry Miller. This book is required reading in world literature courses. Unabridged republication of the 1921 George Egerton translation.

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?

The first complete English translation of the Nobel Prize-winner’s literary masterpiece A Penguin Classic Mysteries is the story of Johan Nilsen Nagel, a mysterious stranger who suddenly turns up in a small Norwegian town one summer—and just as suddenly disappears. Nagel is a complete outsider, a sort of modern Christ treated in a spirit of near parody. He condemns the politics and thought of the age, brings comfort to the “insulted and injured,” and gains the love of two women suggestive of the biblical Mary and Martha. But there is a sinister side of him: in his vest he carries a vial of prussic acid... The novel creates a powerful sense of Nagel''s stream of thought, as he increasingly withdraws into the torture chamber of his own subconscious psyche. 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.

Hunger is Knut Hamsun''s breakthrough novel about a young writer''s efforts to practice his craft while battling extreme poverty and loneliness. Includes commentary by M. B. Ruud.

Pure comedy, this delightful novel follows an engaging reprobate who makes good, despite himself. Ove Rolandsen, a telegraph operator in an isolated fishing village in northern Norway, is a man of sudden passion, a cheerful rogue fond of girls and alchol. He constantly hatches ambitious schemes to the despair of his fiancée, Marie, housekeeper at the vicarage. When a plan to manufacture glue from fish- waste lands him in trouble, is his feckless career over or could fortune, for once, be on his side?

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Shallow Soil" by Knut Hamsun. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

This title was written after the Second World War, at a time when Hamsun was in police custody for his openly expressed Nazi sympathies during the German occupation of Norway. A Nobel laureate deeply beloved by his countrymen, Hamsun was now reviled as a traitor. Published in 1949, this was a kind of apologia - a book filled with the proud sorrow of an old man, yet recalling the spirit of Hamsun''s early novels, with their reverence for nature, absurdist humour and quirky flights of fancy.

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.

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.

«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.

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.

Growth of the Soil, Knut Hamsun''s Nobel Prize winning novel, is an abiding classic of Scandinavian literature. At the time it was published, the literary world was in the throes of shifting to a modernist style. Popular novels were set in the contemporary present, with technological and societal advancements forming part of the narrative backdrop. Growth of the Soil openly displays the conflicts between the old traditions of agrarian society, and the ever-mounting wonders and conveniences offered by modern society. The farmer Isak scarcely acknowledges the values of modern living. Illiterate but capable of carrying out the business of running a farm, he has physical strength and works with his hands. Although initially amazed by Isak''s prowess - his wife Inger, who came into contact with modern society when imprisoned for killing her infant due to its birth defect, return to the home much less impressed by the country life.

"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 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).

"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

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."

"Victoria - A Love Story" stands all by itself in the long series of works by Knut Hamsun. The chief male character, to be sure, bears the stamp of the author’s own personality; he, like his predecessors, clashes with society and its unwritten laws, but succeeds in adjusting himself without betraying his innermost being. Only in his love he suffers disaster. In poetic quality Victoria vies with Pan. We find long passages of lyric prose in both, the beauty of which is hard to surpass, but they have nothing in common with regard to the general atmosphere. Victoria is only a simple love story in prose. But what a prose where the author is at his best! Two youthful lovers are separated by the insuperable barriers of social conventions and economic circumstances. The young man, Johannes, is the son of a humble miller, Victoria the daughter of the proud master of the neighboring castle Hamsun intentionally leaves his readers somewhat in the dark about the exact social status of this old aristocrat. Johannes and Victoria have grown up together, have been playmates, and have come to love each other long before they reached adolescence. To save her lavish father from utter ruin, Victoria consents to marry a rich suitor. During the period of her engagement, she confesses to Johannes that she loves him, only to send him away on the next day because the whole thing is impossible, even though Johannes has made a man of himself and has already achieved fame as a poet. Bu then, at the eleventh hour fate seems to intervene …

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