Biography
About his work, Hamsun wrote: "How modern psychologist I must illuminate and explore the soul. I must explore it up and down, from all points of view, to penetrate into the most secret depths..
After the war, Hamsun lived for some time in a nursing home, and in 1950 he returned to Nørholm.
| Year | original name | Name | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norwegian Dengaadefulde. En kjaerlighedshistorie fra Nordland under the name Knud Pedersen (Norwegian Knud Pedersen) |
« Mysterious person. A love story from Nordland» | story | |
| Norwegian Et Gjensyn Norwegian Knud Pedersen Hamsund ) |
"Date" | ballad | |
| Norwegian Björger under the name Knud Pedersen Hamsund (Norwegian Knud Pedersen Hamsund) |
"Bjerger" | story | |
| Norwegian Lars Oftedal. Udkast (11 articles previously published in Dagbladet (English)Russian) |
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| Norwegian Fra det moderne Amerikas Aandsliv | "The Spiritual Life of America" | ||
| Norwegian Sult | "Hunger " | novel | |
| Norwegian mysterier | "Mysteries" | novel | |
| Norwegian Redaktor Lynge | "Editor Lynge" | novel | |
| Norwegian New York | "New shoots" | novel | |
| Norwegian Pan | "Pan" | story | |
| Norwegian Ved Rigets Port | "At the gates of the kingdom" | play | |
| Norwegian Livets Spil | "Game of Life" | play | |
| Norwegian Siesta | "Siesta" | stories | |
| Norwegian Aftenrode, Slutningsspil | « evening dawn» | play | |
| Norwegian Victoria. En kjaerlighedshistorie | "Victoria" | novel | |
| Norwegian Munken Vendt. Brigantines saga I | "Munken Wendt" ("Monk Wendt") | play | |
| Norwegian I Eventyrland. Oplevet og dromt i Kaukasien | "IN fairyland» | travel notes | |
| Dronning Tamara | Queen Tamara | ||
| Kratskog | |||
| Det wild Kor | wild choir | ||
| Svärmere | Dreamers | ||
| Stridende Liv. Skildringer fra Vesten og Østen | |||
| Under Høststjaernen. En Vandrers Fortælling | Under the autumn stars | ||
| Benoni | Benoni | ||
| Rosa. Af student Pærelius" Papirer | Rose | ||
| En Vandrer spiller med Sordin | A wanderer playing on the mute | ||
| Livet i Vold | militant life | ||
| Den sidste Glade | |||
| Born av Tiden | Children of the century | ||
| Segelfoss By | Segelfoss township | ||
| Markens Grode | fruits of the earth | ||
| Sproget i Fare | |||
| Konerne ved Vandposten | Women at the well | ||
| Siste Kapitel | Final chapter | ||
| Landstrykere I | Rogues / Wanderers | ||
| august | August | ||
| Men Live Lever | And life goes on | ||
| ringen sluttet | The circle is complete | ||
| Paa gjengrodde Stier | Overgrown paths |
Movie incarnations
- Max von Sydow ("Hamsun (film) ( English)”, Denmark-Sweden-Norway-Germany, ).
Bibliography
- Knut Hamsun. Complete works in five volumes .. - "Edition of A. F. Marx", 1910.
- Knut Hamsun. Juices of the earth .. - "Krasnaya Nov", 1923.
- Knut Hamsun. Selected works in two volumes .. - Moscow .: " Fiction", 1970.
- Knut Hamsun. Selected .. - Leningrad .: "Lenizdat", 1991. - 608 p. - ISBN 5-289-00946-9.
- Knut Hamsun. Collected works in six volumes .. - Moscow .: "Fiction", 1991-2000.
- Knut Hamsun. On overgrown paths .. - "Start", 1993. - ISBN 5-85215-023-1.
- Knut Hamsun. Wanderers.. - "AST, Astrel", 2011.
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Notes
Literature
- Erkhov, B. Fjords: Scandinavian novel XIX- beginning of XX century. : [Translations / Afterword: B. Erkhov]. - M.: Moskovsky worker, 1988. - 528s. : tsv.ill. - (Single volumes of classical literature: OKL) Contents: Niels Luhne / J. P. Jacobsen; Tine / G.Bang; Pan; Glan's death; Victoria / K. Hamsun; Dr. Glas / J. Söderberg.
- Hamsun, T. After an eternity. - M.: B.S.G.-Press, 2006.
- Budur N. Hamsun. - M.: Young Guard, 2008.
Links
- Vengerova Z. A.// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
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An excerpt characterizing Hamsun, Knut
- Pierre? Oh no! How beautiful he is,” said Princess Mary.“You know, Marie,” Natasha suddenly said with a playful smile, which Princess Mary had not seen on her face for a long time. - He became somehow clean, smooth, fresh; just from the bath, you understand? - morally from the bath. Is it true?
“Yes,” said Princess Marya, “he won a lot.
- And a short frock coat, and cropped hair; for sure, well, for sure from the bathhouse ... dad, it happened ...
“I understand that he (Prince Andrei) did not love anyone as much as he did,” said Princess Mary.
- Yes, and he is special from him. They say that men are friendly when they are very special. It must be true. Doesn't he really look like him at all?
Yes, and wonderful.
“Well, goodbye,” Natasha answered. And the same playful smile, as if forgotten, remained on her face for a long time.
Pierre could not sleep for a long time that day; he walked up and down the room, now frowning, pondering something difficult, suddenly shrugging his shoulders and shuddering, now smiling happily.
He thought about Prince Andrei, about Natasha, about their love, and then he was jealous of her past, then he reproached, then he forgave himself for it. It was already six o'clock in the morning, and he kept walking around the room.
“Well, what to do. If you can't live without it! What to do! So it must be so,” he said to himself, and, hastily undressing, went to bed, happy and excited, but without doubts or indecisions.
“It is necessary, strange as it may seem, no matter how impossible this happiness is, everything must be done in order to be husband and wife with her,” he said to himself.
A few days before this, Pierre had appointed the day of his departure for Petersburg on Friday. When he woke up on Thursday, Savelich came to him for orders to pack things for the journey.
“How to Petersburg? What is Petersburg? Who is in Petersburg? – involuntarily, though to himself, he asked. “Yes, something long, long ago, even before this happened, for some reason I was going to go to Petersburg,” he recalled. - From what? I will go, maybe. What a kind, attentive, how he remembers everything! he thought, looking at Savelich's old face. And what a nice smile! he thought.
“Well, you still don’t want to be free, Savelich?” Pierre asked.
- Why do I need, Your Excellency, will? Under the late count, the kingdom of heaven, we lived and we don’t see any offense with you.
- Well, what about the children?
- And the children will live, your excellency: you can live for such gentlemen.
“Well, what about my heirs?” Pierre said. "Suddenly I'll get married ... It might happen," he added with an involuntary smile.
- And I dare to report: a good thing, Your Excellency.
“How easy he thinks,” thought Pierre. He doesn't know how scary it is, how dangerous it is. Too soon or too late… Scary!”
- How would you like to order? Would you like to go tomorrow? Savelich asked.
- No; I will postpone a little. I'll tell you then. Excuse me for the trouble, ”said Pierre, and looking at Savelich’s smile, he thought:“ How strange, however, that he does not know that now there is no Petersburg and that first of all it is necessary that this be decided. However, he certainly knows, but only pretends. Talk to him? What does he think? thought Pierre. No, sometime later.
At breakfast, Pierre told the princess that he had been at Princess Mary's yesterday and found him there - can you imagine who? - Natalie Rostov.
The princess pretended that she did not see anything more unusual in this news than in the fact that Pierre saw Anna Semyonovna.
– Do you know her? Pierre asked.
“I saw the princess,” she answered. - I heard that she was married to the young Rostov. This would be very good for the Rostovs; They say they are completely broke.
- No, do you know Rostov?
“I only heard about this story then. Very sorry.
“No, she doesn’t understand or pretends to be,” thought Pierre. "Better not tell her either."
The princess also prepared provisions for Pierre's journey.
“How kind they all are,” thought Pierre, “that now, when it certainly couldn’t be more interesting for them, they are doing all this. And everything for me; that's what's amazing."
On the same day, a police chief came to Pierre with a proposal to send a trustee to the Faceted Chamber to receive the things that were now being distributed to the owners.
“This one too,” thought Pierre, looking into the face of the police chief, “what a glorious, handsome officer and how kind! Now he's dealing with such nonsense. And they say that he is not honest and uses. What nonsense! And yet, why shouldn't he use it? That's how he was brought up. And everyone does it. And such a pleasant, kind face, and smiles, looking at me.
Pierre went to dine with Princess Mary.
Driving through the streets between the conflagrations of houses, he marveled at the beauty of these ruins. Chimneys of houses, fallen off walls, picturesquely reminiscent of the Rhine and the Colosseum, stretched, hiding each other, through the burnt quarters. The cabbies and riders who met, the carpenters who cut the log cabins, the traders and shopkeepers, all with cheerful, beaming faces, looked at Pierre and said as if: “Ah, here he is! Let's see what comes out of it."
At the entrance to the house of Princess Marya, Pierre found doubts about the fairness of the fact that he was here yesterday, saw Natasha and spoke with her. “Maybe I made it up. Maybe I'll go in and see no one." But before he had time to enter the room, as already in his whole being, by the instant deprivation of his freedom, he felt her presence. She was in the same black dress with soft folds and the same hairdo as yesterday, but she was completely different. If she had been like that yesterday, when he entered the room, he could not have failed to recognize her for a moment.
She was the same as he knew her almost as a child and then the bride of Prince Andrei. A cheerful, inquiring gleam shone in her eyes; there was an affectionate and strangely mischievous expression on his face.
Pierre dined and would have sat out all evening; but Princess Mary was on her way to Vespers, and Pierre left with them.
The next day, Pierre arrived early, dined and sat out the whole evening. Despite the fact that Princess Mary and Natasha were obviously glad to have a guest; despite the fact that all the interest in Pierre's life was now concentrated in this house, by evening they had talked everything over, and the conversation moved incessantly from one insignificant subject to another and was often interrupted. Pierre sat up so late that evening that Princess Mary and Natasha looked at each other, obviously expecting him to leave soon. Pierre saw this and could not leave. It became difficult for him, awkward, but he kept sitting, because he could not get up and leave.
Princess Mary, not foreseeing the end of this, was the first to get up and, complaining of a migraine, began to say goodbye.
- So you are going to Petersburg tomorrow? Oka said.
“No, I’m not going,” Pierre said hastily, with surprise and as if offended. - No, to Petersburg? Tomorrow; I just don't say goodbye. I’ll call for commissions, ”he said, standing in front of Princess Marya, blushing and not leaving.
Natasha gave him her hand and left. Princess Mary, on the contrary, instead of leaving, sank into an armchair and, with her radiant, deep gaze, looked sternly and attentively at Pierre. The weariness that she had obviously shown before was completely gone now. She sighed heavily and long, as if preparing herself for a long conversation.
All the embarrassment and awkwardness of Pierre, when Natasha was removed, instantly disappeared and was replaced by an excited animation. He quickly moved the chair very close to Princess Marya.
“Yes, I wanted to tell you,” he said, answering, as if in words, in her glance. “Princess, help me. What should I do? Can I hope? Princess, my friend, listen to me. I know everything. I know that I'm not worth it; I know it's impossible to talk about it now. But I want to be her brother. No, I don't want... I can't...
He stopped and rubbed his face and eyes with his hands.
“Well, here it is,” he continued, apparently making an effort on himself to speak coherently. I don't know since when I love her. But I have loved her alone, alone in my whole life, and I love her so much that I cannot imagine life without her. Now I do not dare to ask for her hand; but the thought that maybe she could be mine and that I would miss this opportunity ... opportunity ... is terrible. Tell me, can I hope? Tell me what should I do? Dear princess,” he said, after a pause and touching her hand, as she did not answer.
“I am thinking about what you told me,” Princess Mary answered. “I'll tell you what. You are right, what now to tell her about love ... - The princess stopped. She wanted to say: it is now impossible for her to talk about love; but she stopped, because for the third day she saw from the suddenly changed Natasha that not only would Natasha not be offended if Pierre expressed his love to her, but that she only wanted this.
“It’s impossible to tell her now,” Princess Marya said anyway.
“But what am I to do?
“Give it to me,” said Princess Mary. - I know…
Pierre looked into the eyes of Princess Mary.
“Well, well…” he said.
“I know that she loves ... she will love you,” Princess Mary corrected herself.
Before she had time to say these words, Pierre jumped up and, with a frightened face, grabbed Princess Mary by the hand.
- Why do you think? Do you think that I can hope? You think?!
“Yes, I think so,” said Princess Mary, smiling. - Write to your parents. And entrust me. I'll tell her when I can. I wish it. And my heart feels that it will be.
- No, it can't be! How happy I am! But it can't be... How happy I am! No, it can not be! - said Pierre, kissing the hands of Princess Mary.
- You go to St. Petersburg; it is better. I'll write to you, she said.
- To Petersburg? Drive? Okay, yes, let's go. But tomorrow I can come to you?
The next day, Pierre came to say goodbye. Natasha was less lively than in the old days; but on this day, sometimes looking into her eyes, Pierre felt that he was disappearing, that neither he nor she was anymore, but there was one feeling of happiness. “Really? No, it can’t be,” he said to himself at her every look, gesture, word that filled his soul with joy.
When, bidding her farewell, he took her thin, thin hand, he involuntarily held it a little longer in his.
“Is it possible that this hand, this face, these eyes, all this treasure of female charm, alien to me, will this all be forever mine, familiar, the same as I am for myself? No, It is Immpossible!.."
“Farewell, Count,” she said to him loudly. “I will be waiting for you very much,” she added in a whisper.
And these simple words, the look and facial expression that accompanied them, for two months, were the subject of Pierre's inexhaustible memories, explanations and happy dreams. “I will be waiting for you very much ... Yes, yes, as she said? Yes, I will be waiting for you. Ah, how happy I am! What is it, how happy I am!” Pierre said to himself.
Knut Hamsun - Short Biography
Hamsun, KnutAugust 4, 1859 - February 19, 1952
Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920
(real name Pedersen) was born in Lom, in the Gudbrandsdalen valley, an agricultural region in Central Norway. His parents, Tora (née Oldsdatter) and Peder Pedersen, settled in Garmutret, a small farm where his three older brothers and two younger sisters spent early childhood. When the boy was 3 years old, the family moved to Khamaroy, a city in Nurlan, located about 100 miles north of polar circle, where the parents rented Hamsund, a small farm owned by Hans Olsen, his maternal uncle. He spent the next six years in an idyllic setting: herding cows, admiring the beauty of the Norwegian fjords and snow-capped mountain peaks.
Soon, however, the family fell into debt bondage to Olsen, and the 9-year-old was forced to work for his uncle, a stern, pious man who often beat him and did not give him food. Unable to endure bullying, in 1873 he escaped to Lom, but the next year he returned to Hamaroy and worked there in a store. In 1875, the young man leads the wandering life of a wandering merchant, and then gets a job with a shoemaker in the northern city of Buda. It was here that he created his first work, the story "Mysterious" ("Den Gaadefulde"), which was published in 1877, when he was 18 years old.
The following year he teaches at a school in Vesterålen, and then becomes an assistant judicial sheriff, in whose library he discovers Bjornstern Bjornson, Henrik Ibsen and other leading Scandinavian writers. At this time, he publishes the novel "Björger" ("Bjørger", 1878), whose eponymous hero writes great poems about his hard life.
With the money of a Nurlan merchant, in 1878 he went to Christiania (now Oslo), however writing cannot provide for himself, squanders his savings, lives in poverty and eventually becomes a road worker in Eastern Norway. In 1882, having secured letters of recommendation to influential emigrants from Norway, he travels to the United States, but his connections are not enough, and he is forced to work first as a farm laborer in Wisconsin, and then as a secretary to a Norwegian preacher in Minnesota. Here, a young man falls seriously ill, doctors make an unconfirmed, however, diagnosis of tuberculosis, and he returns to his homeland.
When he arrived in Oslo in 1884, all the symptoms of the disease, apparently bronchitis, disappeared. For some time he lived in Walders, where, under the pseudonym Knut Hamsund (subsequently, “d” disappeared due to a typographical error), he wrote a work about Mark Twain . In Oslo, his literary career did not work out, again he was in poverty, and then, in 1886, he again went to the United States. Arriving in Chicago, he first works as a streetcar conductor, and in the summer he works as a laborer in the wheat fields of North Dakota. Disillusioned with his literary endeavors, he returned to Europe and in Copenhagen, at that time the center of Scandinavian publishing, showed the story he had begun to Edward Brandes, brother of the influential Danish literary critic Georg Brandes, editor of the daily Copenhagen newspaper, Brandes was equally strong impression produced both an exhausted look and an excerpt from his story. At the end of the same year, the story appeared on the pages of one of the Danish literary magazines, and in 1890 it was published in its entirety in Copenhagen under the title "Hunger" ("Sult").
The Hunger immediately created a sensation and established a reputation as a serious writer. In this story, he breaks with the tradition of accusatory realism, which then prevailed in Scandinavian prose, and abandons the idea that prevailed at that time, according to which the task of literature is to improve the conditions of human existence. The story, in essence, has no plot and tells about young man from the provinces who lives in Oslo and dreams of becoming a writer. Completely confident in his own genius, he prefers to suffer from poverty than to give up ambition “This is the hero of Dostoevsky,” wrote the American critic Alrik Gustafson, “Sick in soul and body, experiencing the pangs of hunger, he turns his inner life into a complete hallucination. The protagonist of "Hunger" suffers not only from the lack of food, but also from the lack social contacts, from sexual dissatisfaction, the inability to express oneself. With his alienation, this hero anticipates the anti-hero of twentieth-century literature.
As one of the translators, the contemporary American poet Robert Bly, put it, "the liveliness and poignancy of the prose shocked everyone." The book is written in short, concise sentences, clear, concise descriptions interspersed with deliberately subjective, meaningful "Hunger" was written at a time when Arthur Schopenhauer, Eduard von Hartmann, Friedrich Nietzsche and August Strindberg called for attention to those complex subconscious forces that govern human personality. He formulated his own concept of subjective prose in an essay entitled "On the Unconscious Spiritual Life" ("Fra det ubevidste Sjæleliv"), which appeared in the same year as "Hunger".
Rejecting the conventions of objective prose, the writer proposes to study "the secret movements of the soul that occur in the most remote depths of the subconscious, analyze the innumerable chaos of impressions, examine the exquisite life of the imagination, the flow of thoughts and feelings through a magnifying glass" again uses the subjective method in the novel "Mysteries" (" Mysterier", 1892), which speaks of a charlatan who appears in a seaside village and puzzles the inhabitants with his strange behavior. The novel "Pan" ("Pan", 1894) is written in the form of the memoirs of Thomas Glan, who renounces a civilized existence and lives the life of a hunter and fisherman near the provincial town of Nurlan. “I tried, by analogy with Rousseau, to present something like a cult of nature, sensitivity, more precisely, the supersensitivity of the soul,” he admitted to his friend when he was working on Pan. The sublime descriptions of nature express the euphoria that he himself and his main character, who mystically and pantheistically identified himself with the Nurlan village, sought to find. Glan's fiery passion for Edwarda, the spoiled, willful daughter of a local merchant, creates emotional chaos in his soul, which ultimately leads the hero to suicide.
- A recognized author of novels and essays, but he also wrote poetic and dramatic works. From 1895 to 1898 he wrote drama trilogy about the life of the philosopher: "At the gates of the kingdom" ("Ved rikets port", 1895), "The drama of life" ("Livets spill", 1896) and "Evening dawn" ("Aftenrøde", 1898). According to the general opinion of critics, in his plays he was unable to portray the characters of the characters as deeply as he succeeded in his novels. He burned most of his poetic works before their publication, but in 1904 he published a collection of poems "The Wild Choir" ("Det vilde kor"), which is not inferior to his best prose.
Since the beginning of the XX century. writes voluminous novels, where a lot actors and the narration is in the third person, such as "Children of the Century" ("Børn av tiden", 1913) and its sequel "Segelfoss Township" ("Segelfoss by", 1915). According to James W. MacFarlane, one of the translators, these and subsequent novels "became a figurative demonstration of the writer's established and generally pastoral (even feudal) value system: anti-intellectualism and apoliticality, combined with a strong prejudice against the mercenary spirit."
His move to the farm in 1911 reflected his deepening alienation from society and rejection, especially in connection with the events of the First World War - the industrial age. These moods permeate the novel "The Fruits of the Earth" ("Markens grøde"), which was published in 1917. big love tells about the life of the Norwegian peasants Isak and Inger, who retained their age-old attachment to the land and loyalty to patriarchal traditions.
Precisely "for this monumental work as "Fruits of the Earth"", in 1920 was awarded Nobel Prize on literature. The representative of the Swedish Academy, Harald Jerne, said in his speech: "Those who seek in literature ... truthful image reality, will find in the "Juices of the Earth" a story about the life that any person lives, wherever he is, wherever he works. Jerne even compared the novel to the didactic poems of Hesiod. He refused to give the Nobel lecture.
A year after the release of The Juices of the Earth, he acquired the Nerholm estate in Southern Norway, where he combined literary work from agriculture. The novel "Women at the Well" ("Konerne ved vandposten") appeared in 1920 Cynical and hopeless, this novel tells about the extinction of a small seaside village, infected with false, from the author's point of view, values modern world. Then came The Last Chapter (Siste kapitel, 1923), a dark novel about a rural sanatorium.
Experiencing depression associated with unfavorable reviews of his books, he is briefly treated by psychoanalysis, after which he writes the trilogy Tramps (Landstrykere, 1927), August (August, 1930) and Life Goes On (Men livet lever", 1933), the main character of which is a tramp named August. Although these three novels return to the theme of social exclusion, Augustus' impotence is irreversible this time. The last novel, "The Circle is Closed" ("Ringen sluttet"), was published in 1936. It describes the aimless life of a man whose hopes are not destined to come true, but who, nevertheless, remains, according to the words, "a ruler in his own way."
With age, he becomes more and more reactionary: in 1934 he openly declares his support for the Nazis. Although the writer never joined the Norwegian Nazi Party, he wrote several pro-fascist articles published during the German occupation of Norway, and in 1943 he met in Germany with Goebbels and Hitler. Thousands of readers returned the books to the writer in protest. At the end of the war, his wife was also arrested. In the fall of 1945, the writer was placed in a psychiatric clinic in Oslo, where he spent four months, after which he was transferred to a nursing home in Landvik. In 1947, he appeared before the court, was found guilty of aiding the enemy and sentenced to pay 425 thousand Norwegian kroner (about 80 thousand dollars at the then exchange rate), but due to "intellectual degradation" he avoided imprisonment. "On Overgrown Paths" ("På gjengrodde stier"), a story about a trial, appeared in 1949 when she was 90 years old. The book is written extremely lively, Robert Bly called it "still lively, concise and bright", which, however, in no way justifies the behavior during the war. Nevertheless, this book, of course, contributed to the revival of interest in the writer's work.
In 1898 he married Berglut Beh, with whom he had a daughter. In 1906, the couple divorced, and two years later the writer fell in love with actress Maria Andersen, who was twenty-three years younger than him. They married in 1909 and had two daughters and two sons. During the investigation of the case in 1947, Maria revealed the intimate details of their marriage, and the angry refused to see her for the next three years, but from 1950 they lived together again until the death of the writer, which followed on February 19, 1952
Many critics agree that, with its inherent subjectivity, fragmentation, lyricism, violation of the sequence of action, is the ancestor modern prose. “Today, this is the only Norwegian writer, apart from Ibsen and Unset, who is a classic of world literature,” says Harald Ness. Alrik Gustafson agrees with him, who declares that books are captivating not by accusation, but by “pure literary merit and are remembered for superbly delineated lively characters, unprecedented wealth literary devices and, perhaps, first of all, with its style, which, in terms of sensitivity, sincerity of sound, is the purest poetry.
Main works:
Knut Hamsun - Short Biography
Knut Hamsun (real name Pederson) was born on August 4, 1859 in Lom, in the agricultural region of Central Norway, into a large family of a rural tailor. When the boy was 3 years old, the family moved to the town of Hamaroy, located about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where the parents rented a small farm called Hamsund. On this farm, the name of which served as the basis for the pseudonym, future writer spent six years in an idyllic setting: herding cows, admiring the beauty of the Norwegian fjords and snow-capped mountain peaks. But later the family fell into poverty, and the nine-year-old boy was forced to work for his uncle.
At the age of 14 he started independent life, working as a seller in a store, a loader, school teacher, bricklayer, assistant policeman, peddler, traveling with small goods in northern Norway. In 1877, when the young man was 18 years old, his first work was published - the story "The Mysterious Man", and in 1878 - the novel "Berger".
In 1882, having secured letters of recommendation to influential emigrants from Norway, Hamsun went to the United States, but his connections were not enough, and he was forced to work first as a farm laborer, and then as a secretary to a Norwegian preacher. Here the young man becomes seriously ill with bronchitis and returns to his homeland.
Continuing to write, he takes the pseudonym "Knut Hamsund" (subsequently, "d" disappeared due to a typographical error). But the literary career did not work out, Hamsun was again in poverty and in 1886 again went to the United States. Arriving in Chicago, he first works as a tram conductor, and in the summer he works as a laborer in wheat fields.
In 1888 Hamsun returned to Europe. And then his talent was finally appreciated. His new story, telling about a young man from the provinces who lives in Oslo and dreams of becoming a writer, appeared on the pages of one of the Danish literary magazines, and in 1890 was published in Copenhagen under the title "Hunger". She created a sensation and established Hamsun's reputation as a serious writer. It logically fit into the cultural processes of the time, when Arthur Schopenhauer, Eduard von Hartmann, Friedrich Nietzsche and August Strindberg called for attention to those complex subconscious forces that govern the human personality. Refusing the conventions of objective prose, Hamsun, as it were, proposes to study the secret movements of the soul that occur in the most remote depths of the subconscious, to analyze the innumerable chaos of impressions, the life of the imagination, the flow of thoughts and feelings.
The same subjective method was used in the novels The Mysteries (1892) and Pan (1894). Sublime descriptions of nature express the euphoria that both Hamsun himself and his main character, Glan, sought to find.
In 1898, 46-year-old Hamsun marries 25-year-old Bergliot Beck, and in the fall of that year he ends his best novel about love "Victoria". At the turn of the century, he also published a number of other significant works - a dramatic trilogy about the struggle of the Nietzschean scientist Kareno for his ideals ("At the Gates of the Kingdom", "The Game of Life", "Evening Dawn"), anti-church dramatic poem"Munken Wendt" (1902), drama about love "Queen Tamara" (1903), travel notes about a trip to Russia and the Caucasus "In a Fairyland" (1903), a collection of poems "Wild Chorus" (1904) and a novel about a fisherman village in his native Nordland "The Dreamer" (1904).
In 1906, Hamsun's marriage fell apart, and in 1909 he married Maria Andersen, an intelligent and gifted woman, with whom he would live the rest of his life. One of the problems that worries the writer at this time is old age. In the novel “Under the Autumn Star” (1907) and its sequel “The Stranger Plays the Mute” (1909), as well as in the play “Life in the Paws” (1910), the hero comes to the conclusion that nature itself requires the withering of all living things, according to in comparison with which human ambitions are an unnecessary trifle.
The writer is increasingly working in the genre of journalism: he defends the patriarchal way of life, which is threatened by industrialization, "Americanism", Hamsun opposed him back in 1889, after returning from the USA, in his lectures "The Spiritual Life of America". Rejection technical progress and the condemnation of liberal-democratic values becomes the main trend of all his subsequent work (the novels "The Last Joy" 1912, "Children of the Century" 1913, "Segelfoss Township" 1915). The novel The Juices of the Earth (1917) is also imbued with these sentiments, the characters of which, in spite of everything, retain their age-old attachment to the earth and loyalty to patriarchal traditions. It was for "Juices of the Earth" that Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun refused to read the Nobel lecture.
Soon Hamsun acquires the Nerholm estate in Southern Norway; he combines literary work with agricultural work. In 1920, the novel "Women at the Well" appeared, about the extinction of a small seaside village, infected by false, from the author's point of view, values of the modern world. In 1923 The Last Chapter, a dark novel about a rural sanatorium.
Experiencing depression associated with unfavorable reviews of his books, Hamsun tries to be treated by psychoanalysis. He writes a trilogy of Tramps (1927), August (1930) and Life Goes On (1933). Hamsun's last novel "The Ring is Closing" was published in 1936. It describes the aimless life of a man whose hopes are not destined to come true.
In 1934, Hamsun publicly welcomed the occupation of the country by the Nazis. Still dissatisfied with the regime, trying to remove the German ruler of Norway, Hamsun visited Hitler in Germany, but he, dissatisfied with his requests, cut off the audience. (This did not prevent Hamsun on May 7, 1945 from publishing an obituary for Hitler in the newspaper, in which he paid tribute to him as a fighter for the "rights of all peoples"). Hamsun was inclined to the side of Nazism by his long-standing dislike for Great Britain and the USA, sympathy for German culture and Germany, the writer's fundamental orientation towards the irrational "natural" principle and well-known anti-intellectualism, and finally, the main thing - a persistent habit to always and in everything go against the current.
Thousands of readers returned the books to the writer in protest. At the end of the war, Hamsun and his wife were arrested. During the investigation, Maria, believing the promise of the investigators that she could save her husband from imprisonment, citing his mental illness, revealed the intimate details of their marriage. The writer was placed in a psychiatric clinic in Oslo, where he spent four months, after which he was transferred to a nursing home in Landvik. Enraged, Hamsun refused to see his wife (and this continued until 1950)
In 1947, he was put on trial, found guilty of aiding the enemy, and sentenced to a fine and confiscation of property. The story about this lawsuit "On Overgrown Paths" appeared in 1949, when Hamsun was 90 years old. This lively and bright book contributed to the revival of interest in the writer's work.
The last years of his life Hamsun spent in his estate Norholm, bought out for him by the publishing house. Hamsun died on February 19, 1952.
Hamsun Knut is a famous Norwegian impressionist writer, playwright, poet, publicist and literary critic. In 1920, he won the Nobel Prize for his book The Juices of the Earth.
Childhood
Hamsun Knut was born in Lom (region of Central Norway). His parents (Peder Pedersen and Thora Oldsdatter) settled on a small farm in Garmutret. Hamsun had two younger sisters and three older brothers.
When the boy was 3 years old, the whole family moved to Hamaroy. There they rented a farm from Hans Olsen (Hamsun's maternal uncle). The next six years of the life of the future writer passed in an idyllic atmosphere: he herded cows and constantly admired the beauty of the snow-capped mountains and Norwegian fjords.
The farm lease ended in debt bondage for the family, and 9-year-old Knut began working for his uncle. He was a pious man, did not give him food and often beat him. In 1873, tired of bullying, the boy fled to a nearby town, but returned a year later and got a job in a local shop.
First work
In 1875, the young man became a traveling merchant. When he got tired of this occupation, Hamsun Knut stopped in the city of Buda and got a job as an assistant shoemaker. It was then that he wrote his first story, The Mysterious Man. It was published in 1877, when the young man was 18 years old.
A year later, Hamsun teaches at a school, and then decides to become an assistant judicial sheriff. In his library, he gets acquainted with the works of such Scandinavian writers as Bjornstern Bjornson, etc. In 1878, Knut published the novel Berger, where the main character writes poetry about his difficult life. However, this does not bring him fame and, having borrowed money from a Nurlan merchant, he leaves for Oslo. In subsequent years, the young man spends all his money, as he cannot earn money by writing. As a result, Hamsun Knut becomes a road worker.
Moving to the USA and illness
First success
Disillusioned with life and literary endeavors, the author returns to Europe (Copenhagen) and shows one of the works he has begun to Edward Brandes, the editor of a daily newspaper. Both the emaciated writer and the passage from the story made a strong impression on Edward. In 1890, a book was published in Copenhagen, on the cover of which there was an inscription "Knut Hamsun" Hunger "". This story created a sensation and gave the author a reputation as a serious writer.
The story "Hunger"
In this work, Knut abandoned not only the tradition of accusatory realism characteristic of Scandinavian prose, but also the idea that prevailed at that time that literature should improve the conditions of human existence. In fact, the essay has no plot and tells about a young man who lives in Oslo and dreams of becoming a writer. Well, of course, the story is autobiographical and the prototype of the main character is Knut Hamsun. The Hunger received rave reviews from critics. For example, Alrik Gustafson wrote: “It is like the hero of Dostoyevsky, who is sick in body and soul, experiences the pangs of hunger and makes his inner life a complete hallucination.”
The main character of the work suffers not only from the lack of food, but also from the lack of social contacts, the impossibility of self-expression and sexual dissatisfaction. Confident in his genius, he prefers to beg than give up his dreams and ambitions. Many critics wrote that with his aloofness, this hero anticipated the anti-hero of the literature of the 20th century. By the way, the story is still very popular. This is evidenced by the high frequency of the search query when people search for "Hunger" (book). Knut Hamsun is also known in the 21st century.
Development of own concept
No less important is the fact that in his first successful work, the writer developed a specific style. "Hunger" was written in short and succinct sentences. And clear and precise descriptions deliberately alternated with significant and subjective ones. The creation of "Hunger" coincided with the time when Strindberg, Nietzsche, Hartmann and Schopenhauer called for paying attention to the subconscious forces that control the human personality.
Knut Hamsun, whose collected works can be bought in almost any bookstore, formulated his own subjective concept of prose in an essay called "From the subconscious life of the soul." This work appeared in the same year as "Hunger". In it, the author abandoned the features of objective prose and proposed to study "the movements of the soul in remote corners of the subconscious and analyze the chaos of impressions."
Second and third novels
The second successful work written by Knut Hamsun is "Mysteries". The novel tells about a charlatan who appears in a seaside village and surprises the inhabitants with strange behavior. As with The Hunger, the writer once again used the subjective method, and it worked well to make the book popular.
Pan, published in 1894, was the author's third successful novel. Knut Hamsun, whose biography was eventful, wrote it in the form of the memoirs of a certain Thomas Glan. The main character is alien to a civilized existence, and he lives outside the city in Nurlan, engaged in fishing and hunting. By analogy with Rousseau, the author wanted to show the cult of nature and the hypersensitivity of the soul. Knut expressed the euphoria of the protagonist with the help of sublime descriptions of nature and tried to identify his personality with the Nurlan village. Thomas' fiery passion for Edward, the willful, spoiled daughter of a merchant, creates real emotional chaos in his soul and eventually leads to suicide.
Fourth novel
The fourth monumental work written by Knut Hamsun is "Juices of the Earth" (published in 1917). The novel reflected the atmosphere of 1911, when the writer moved to live on a farm and found himself alienated from society. The author tells with great love about the life of two Norwegian peasants Inger and Isak, who, despite all the problems, were able to remain faithful to patriarchal traditions and devotion to their land. In 1920 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work.
Many believe that there is another novel written by Knut Hamsun - "The Fruits of the Earth". In fact, they are wrong. It's just a different translation of the original Norwegian title "Juices of the Earth".
Support for Nazism
With age, Knut becomes more and more reactionary. Since 1934, he openly supported the Nazis. Hamsun did not join the fascist party, but traveled to Germany to meet with Hitler. When the Germans occupied Norway, many pro-fascist articles came out, under which was the signature "Hamsun Knut". The writer's books were returned to him by thousands of readers in protest.
Arrest and trial
At the end of the war, he was arrested along with his wife. In the fall of 1945, Hamsun was placed in a psychiatric clinic. After four months of treatment, he was transferred to Landvik in a nursing home. Two years later, the writer was tried and found guilty of aiding the enemy. He was also ordered to pay 425,000 Imprisonment Knut was avoided due to "intellectual degradation".
Last piece
Essays "On Overgrown Paths" became latest work writer. The tragedy of the book has accumulated over several decades. Knut Hamsun (quotes from his works can be read below) dreamed of restoring the former greatness of the Scandinavians. Hitler's speeches about the rise (in particular the Norwegian one) strongly "hooked" the writer. That is why Hamsun was imbued with the ideology of fascism and only years later realized his own wrong. In On Overgrown Paths, Knut talks about his tragic mistakes but does not ask for forgiveness from the people for them. The writer never admitted that he was wrong.
Death
Knut Hamsun, whose biography was presented in this article, died on his estate Nornholm. Post-war editions of the playwright began to appear in Norway only in 1962: he was forgiven as a writer, but could not be forgiven as a public figure. In conclusion, we present the most famous quotes author from his works.
Quotes
“Don't be angry at life. No need to be cruel, strict and fair to life. Be merciful and take her under your protection. You have no idea what kind of players she has to deal with.”
"To compose is to judge oneself."
“I am a stranger to everyone, so I often talk to myself.”
“The greatest is he who gives human existence meaning and leaves behind a legacy.
“Most often, good things pass without a trace, and evil entails consequences.”
"From the bench I see the stars, and my thoughts are carried upwards with a whirlwind of light."
"Life is a daily war with the demons in your brain and heart."
There are many great thinkers and artists in the history of literature whose works remain unrecognized. There are writers who simply do not read. The lot of others is to publish their books in hundreds of copies, but to remain in oblivion. There are authors whose behavior or views are offensive to the reader, but he reads their works and returns to them again and again.
These, perhaps, include Knut Hamsun, a Norwegian writer. One of the most controversial writers of the last century, he openly supported the Nazis and, at the same time, was considered one of the greatest novelists.
about the author
The real name of the writer is Knud Pedersen, he is the son of a tailor from Norway. Born in 1859 in countryside, in Gudbrandsdalen. Three years later, the family moved to Hamaroy to work in Hamsun, a relative's farm.
Hamsun did not attend school until the age of nine. His uncle, in whose house they lived, was an imperious, moreover, "stingy and quick-tempered", as Hamsun himself wrote, a man; could insult and beat for any reason. But he was also in charge of the local library, where Knut taught himself to read and write.
Despite their humble origins and lack of formal education, two clumsy stories written by a young farmer writer were published in obscure editions. And Hamsun Knut asked the wealthy Norwegian merchant E. Zahl for financial support.
Life in America
Hamsun went to Copenhagen and struggled to survive. At 18, he moved to America. In New York, he was shocked by the overhead railroad that went "through the air, over the houses," but the future writer lived mainly in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Eight months in Chicago, where he worked on a cable car, then on a farm in the Dakotas. He admired the principles set out in the Declaration of Independence by Mark Twain, whose lectures he attended in New York.
Hamsun took on any job, starved, brought himself to nervous exhaustion, but was forced to return to his homeland. The few articles he managed to publish didn't improve him financial situation. And he goes to America for the second time - he works as a tram conductor, works as a laborer, and gives lectures on literature. In 1877, the first book, The Mysterious Man, was published. A year later - the ballad "Date" and the story "Bjerger". In 1888 he returned to Europe and settled in Copenhagen. Soon, several chapters of the novel "Hunger" are published in one of the magazines.
Return to Norway
Hamsun is considered the most outrageous figure in the literature of that time. In the biography of Knut Hamsun there are many actions that shocked his contemporaries. For example, while traveling around the country with lectures, he openly provoked Norwegian classics with his statements. Once he invited Ibsen to his lecture in Oslo and, in front of everyone, accused him of not writing, but “scratching with trembling hands” and bringing his “crude and false” psychological understanding to the masses. His most shocking prank is considered to be a statement addressed to Ibsen: "It's time for you to leave!"
Frankly, his behavior has shocked him before. When he lived in America, his roommate recalled that he returned home one night, Hamsun was already asleep, the lamp on the table was still on, and on the table lay a cigar, a knife and a note: “Smoke a cigar and stick a knife in my heart. P.S. this note will be your defense in court.” And the angel of death was painted on the ceiling.
Knut Hamsun set fire to the curtains of his landlord more than once and cracked ceramic tiles with his bare hands. When his father died, Hamsun refused to go to the funeral, instead writing an article arguing that the fourth commandment was "obsolete" and that parents should honor their children.
Personal life
Hamsun's behavior was different from the generally accepted in society, and he did not try to hide his shortcomings. And some offenses that a decent person simply could not afford seemed small compared to what Hamsun could “throw out”. The story of his first marriage to Bergliot Bech in 1898 has long been the subject of discussion. Bergliot was married for many years and had a daughter. But Hamsun persuaded her to leave her husband.
They lived together for eight years, and then their acquaintances began to receive slanderous letters in which women were warned against any connection with Hamsun. He blamed his wife for this and said that he did not want to have anything to do with her. But at the same time he took all her money and left it in Belgium. He did not hide this and admitted that he did not act like "the most decent person", and later blamed God for everything: "He made me who I am, and is responsible."
The second time Hamsun married the beautiful Mary Andersen in 1909. Mary left her career as an actress and remained with him for the rest of her life. Be that as it may, the books of Hamsun Knut were admired by the whole world, and the complex nature did not prevent him from creating great works.
Writer's worldview
Before getting acquainted with the works of Hamsun, you need to say a little about his worldview. This topic cannot be avoided, because his attitude towards Hitler was criticized then and condemned now. It would be wrong to say that the writer was recklessly devoted to the ideas of Nazism. There was always a certain natural cynicism in the character of Hamsun. He was sure that for his works everyone is obliged to help him both financially and by patronizing his works. Which, in fact, was done by representatives of both Norwegian and world culture, realizing how important Hamsun was to them.
In his articles and lectures, Hamsun Knuth repeatedly warned readers and listeners against pacifism, arguing that war is not something unnatural. War for needs is part of life. As an example, he cited peasants who kill animals out of necessity, and only a city dweller who did not live in the countryside can call this cruelty. Hamsun was sure that the world would be cleansed of all this husk that came from the West. He recklessly slandered America and England, and believed that a new time would come to this musty world, thanks to young Germany.
Hamsun was sincere in his statements and believed that Norway would flourish only under the leadership of Germany. He considered the occupation a misunderstanding, but was a staunch supporter of the Third Reich. In 1943, he gave his Nobel medal, which he received for the novel "The Fruits of the Earth", to Joseph Goebbels. Hamsun met with Hitler, and when the Fuhrer committed suicide, he wrote an obituary where he called the Nazi leader "a fighter for the rights of peoples."
Trial
After the war, at the trial, Hamsun Knut said that he knew nothing about the crimes of fascism, but was only a recluse in the office of his house. In fact, he has not written a single line since 1938. Norwegian ministers demanded that war criminals be tried to the fullest extent of the law. But Molotov (the Hamsun case was decided in Moscow) said that the life of the author of "Pan" and "Victoria", the creator of the best works Knut Hamsun, and you can't judge him like the rest.
At the trial, Hamsun told how passionately he loved Norway, and did everything for her good. He said that he had not heard anything about the war and did not deserve punishment. At the same time, he did not apologize or renounce his views. The court found him guilty of aiding the Nazis and sentenced him to a heavy fine - 425,000 NOK. Hamsun lost his fortune, but remained free.
last years of life
He described the trial in his latest book"On Overgrown Paths", which he began working on in a psychiatric hospital, and continued in a nursing home. It was difficult to find a publisher who would dare to publish. Hamsun's name on the cover wouldn't do any good. Many were sure that his support for the Nazis was an insult to the whole people.
Someone claimed that his behavior in war time one cannot judge so strictly, because this is the behavior of an old man and a madman, a person deaf to reality. Hamsun staked all his fortune left after the trial, and won. The book was published during the life of the writer in 1950, had big success, and it became clear to everyone that there could be no question of any dementia of the writer.
The personality of this person does not fit into the usual framework. Surprisingly, people dying of hunger, who were in an even worse situation than the hero of the book "Hunger", did not stop reading it. Hamsun's books were published in the USSR and in many other countries. Of course, there are directors who refuse his plays, readers who do not buy Hamsun's books.
Someone is trying to separate his personality into a writer and a politician. Reconcile the villain with the artist. But those who are not indifferent to the history of the European novel, the history of literature, agree that Hamsun is a writer without whom it is difficult to imagine modernism in literature. Knut Hamsun invented the new kind letters - a "psychological" novel. Interest in his work does not dry out even after the death of the writer. Hamsun died in February 1952.
Film adaptations of Knut Hamsun
- The first films based on Hamsun's books were filmed in Russia by actors of the Moscow Art Theater. They looked closely at a completely new art for a long time and in 1916, headed by B. Sushkevich, they took up the creation of the film “Slaves of Love”, in 1917 the film “Victoria” was shot under the direction of O. Preobrazhenskaya. These productions did not have a big impact on Russian cinema. The films were silent, and none of them have survived.
- In 1921, a film based on the novel "Juices of the Earth" was released in Norway; it became not only the first based on the works of Hamsun, but also one of the first silent films in Norway. The director of the film was the Dane G. Sommerfeldt. The premiere fell on the Christmas holidays and became important event in Norwegian culture. This movie for a long time was considered partially lost, but in honor of the 150th anniversary of the writer in 2009 it was restored.
- A new adaptation of Hamsun's Pan is released in Norway in 1922. The epilogue of the film was filmed in Algeria, which further fueled the interest of the public. In the same year, the film "Last Joy" was released in Czechoslovakia.
- In 1923, the picture " strong willed based on the novel The Telegrapher (The Dreamer). A professional director worked on the creation of the film, and the premiere was a huge success.
- The first sound film "Victoria" was released in Germany in 1935, the director was the famous cinematographer K. Hoffman.
- In 1937, in Germany, director O. Fjord makes a film based on the novel "Pan".
- The next film "The Last Chapter" based on Hamsun's novel comes out only in 1961 in Germany. The film was directed by V. Leibner. Filming took place in the homeland of the writer.
- In 1962, in Sweden, under the direction of director B. Henning, the film “ short summer based on the novel Pan.
- In 1966, the film "Hunger" directed by H. Carlsen was released, in leading role with P. Oskarsson, for which he received a prize in the same year at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film - the Palme d'Or.
- The next film adaptation is " glacial period”- comes out in 1973 in Germany. The film was based on the play by T. Dorst "Toller", which was based on the last book - "On Overgrown Paths".
- In 1989, the film adaptation of The Tramp directed by O. Solum was released.
- In 1989, the film by the Latvian director O. Dunkers "Victoria" was released.
- In 1994, The Telegrapher by E. Gustavson based on the script by L. Christensen.
- In 1995, the film "Pan" by H. Carlsen was shot.
- In 1999, three short films based on Hamsun's stories were shot.
- And in 2007, the cartoon "The Fly" by S. Elvestad appeared based on the story of the writer "Common Fly".
Creativity Hamsun
The writer easily plays with the reader, causing a storm of a wide variety of emotions and thoughts, influencing his feelings and consciousness. At the same time, he writes quite simply, does not try to embellish the language, and sometimes deliberately adds "uncouth", rude phrases. With this, in fact, he reproached those writers who cared about the pretentiousness of their writings. He criticized them for their passion for stylistic refinements and for the lack of personal portraits.
Early works
It is convenient to divide Hamsun's work into periods. Works related to early work, - “Bjerger”, “Date”, “Mysterious Man”, written by him back in adolescence, attract attention rather from the point of view of the evolution of the writer. Here the theme of wandering, love for nature, peasant life.
To creativity, rich love stories, human relations and psychologism, include the works "Victoria", "Pan", "Mysteries", "Hunger". They brought the author worldwide fame and are literally "disassembled" into quotes.
Knut Hamsun will no longer touch on the topics covered in these novels, they will never attract him. Critics will say that this was influenced by his beliefs and the personality changes that happened to him: he disliked city life, the technocratic processes that took place at that time, and more and more clearly felt hostility to the English civilization.
- The Mysteries, published in 1892, marked a new stage in his work. The plot underlying the work was marked by originality and novelty. If the Norwegian classics Ibsen and Bjornson strove to reveal the essence of a person’s character as clearly as possible, then in the “Mystery” Hamsun feels some kind of understatement and reticence.
- In the work "Pan" (1894) it is clearly visible in which direction the writer will move in the future. In this novel, Hamsun approached man as an integral part of nature. Lieutenant Glan, the main character, lives in the forest and feels freedom and happiness only alone with the northern summer, listening to the breath of nature. In the civilized world, he is uncomfortable and awkward.
- "Victoria" (1898) is one of the most significant works of world literature devoted to the theme of love. The simple and dramatic plot of the work tells about two people, about their deep and unfulfilled love, separated by false morality, property interests and class barriers.
- The novel "Hunger" is largely autobiographical. It tells about the life of a young intellectual who is trying to make a living by publishing his articles. Hamsun so vividly conveyed the complex moods of his hero, his despair, anger and state of euphoria, that the reader involuntarily suffers from malnutrition along with him, worries, hopes and rushes about in search.
IN latest novel there is a similarity with the works of Dostoevsky. The author himself spoke a lot about Russian literature.
Later novels
After many years of self-improvement, a desperate struggle against hunger and poverty, the self-taught less than a year, Hamsun becomes a professional writer. His later works are striking in the broad outlook of the author and testify to his excellent knowledge in the field of history, philosophy, culture, religion, etc.
- In the works “Under the Autumn Star” (1906) and “The Wanderer Playing the Mute” (1909), something new appeared: the writer himself becomes the hero of his novels. He speaks in the first person, wanders around Norway: either he goes into the forests, then he returns to society, where a variety of human relationships awaits him.
- In 1908, in the novels "Rose" and "Benoni", Hamsun returned to the heroes of the work "Pan", as if unable to part with his youth.
- "Children of the Century" and the continuation of the novel "Segelfoss Township" (1915) reveal the peculiarity of human relations. For Hamsun, the theme of closeness, the inability to loving friend other people break through the wall of misunderstanding.
- The novel "Juices of the Earth", for which the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920, is a hymn peasant labor. The hero of the work, Isaac, turns a wild forest land into fertile land.
- "The Woman at the Well" - a work published in 1920 - is imbued with bitterness and sadness. Oliver Andersen, the hero of the novel, is a reflection of city life. In the past, a lively sailor, he returns home a cripple. And so it goes through life, crippled not only physically, but also spiritually.
- In the novel "The Last Chapter" (1923), Hamsun's skeptical attitude towards Western civilization. The action of the work takes place in a sanatorium, a reduced likeness of society. The building cracked, like the whole world, over which the hurricane of revolution and war swept over. The novel ends with an apocalyptic picture: a fire in a sanatorium takes the lives of all its inhabitants.
- Time does not stand still, and everything changes: human psychology and relationships, cities, villages. Everything becomes different. The author tries to capture what changes history, and appears before the reader in the guise of an enterprising August, the protagonist of the trilogy "Wanderers" (1927-1933).
- Vicious Circle (1936) is the book that ended creative activity writer. The protagonist suffers not from hunger and poverty, but from a prosperous life. He cannot live in luxury, spends money senselessly, lives in debt, he does not like settled life, his element is wandering and vagrancy.
- Hamsun's last book, On Overgrown Paths, was published in 1949. He wrote it at the age of 90, but she was, according to critics, "still alive and bright."
For a long time, the writer's talent remained unrecognized at home - in Norway. The Knut Hamsun Museum, the first in the world, was opened only in 2009 in the town of Hamara, on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Despite the controversial elements of the biography of this author, his works are worth reading. It is enough to read at least one of them to answer the question that has been worrying many for several decades - "Who is Hamsun?".
