Victoria

by Knut Hamsun

Other authorsSverre Lyngstad (Translator)

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

839.8236

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin Classics (2005), Edition: Tra, Paperback, 112 pages

Description

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.

User reviews

LibraryThing member lindawwilson

GROWTH OF THE SOIL is one of my all time favorites; also this author is a Nobel Prize winner, so I have paid attention to his works. HUNGER was not good, but this one was pretty good; wanders a little and is very short, but a love story with a different twist.

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LibraryThing member araridan

Victoria is from the same author of Hunger, but where Hunger follows a starving young man and a complexity of issues about the nature of humanity...Victoria is pretty much a story of unrequited love. Love stories aren't really my favorite, however this one isn't too annoying. I don't have anything

particularly bad to say about the book...it's really short (84 pgs) and compelling enough, I just think one should read Hunger instead.

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LibraryThing member JimmyChanga

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.

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LibraryThing member s.kaosar

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.

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LibraryThing member Ghost_Boy

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.

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