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Loading... Victoria (Penguin Classics) (original 1898; edition 2005)by Knut Hamsun, Sverre Lyngstad (Translator)
Work InformationVictoria by Knut Hamsun (1898)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. While this is only 82 pages, I didn't find this a quick read. It's not difficult or anything, just a little slow compared to Hunger. Took me awhile to get into the story. ( ) The story was just okay and though I can't complain about the writing, having not read it in its originally written language, I did not take to the translation done by Sverre Lyngstad. There was a sort of insincerity that came off while I was reading, however, to be fair, since this is the first time I've read Hamsun, what I did not like could just as well have been Hamsun's style, which the translator tried to capture or did capture. Anyway, I didn’t like it, but to my surprise, now and then it seemed something shone through the writing that drew me in to continue to read. Something about Hamsun's characters, their helplessness in the face of their self-made societal restraints upon their natural human selves - the essence of that comes through in slight glimmers of light. I would read Hamsun again, though I think I'll try a different translator the next time just to see if it's translation or Hamsun writing itself that didn't appeal to me. This is like an inferior version of Pan. Thankfully, it's short. And probably it's better than I give it credit for--but it's just hard not to compare it to his other masterpieces. This story of unrequited love doesn't say anything about obsession, delirium, or irrationality that Pan doesn't say much better and with much more humor. It does, however, touch on some class issues, but that in itself makes me want to yawn a great big yawn. no reviews | add a review
Forced by circumstances into perverse cruelty to one another, Johannes & Victoria live their lives apart until, in the last tragic pages, we see that Victoria cannot live without her Johannes. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)839.8236Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Danish and Norwegian literatures Norwegian literature Norwegian Bokmål fiction 1800–1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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