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Victoria

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 1,364 ratings · 92 reviews

When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love's predicament in a class-bound society. Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth- century Norway, "Victoria" follows two doomed lovers through their thwarted lifelong romance. Johannes, the son of...more

Published (first published 1898)

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Sep 28, 2012 s.penkevich rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Heart-breakers and harlots

Recommended to s.penkevich by: The oeuvre

Shelves: europe, hamsun, doomed_love

‘Love became the world’s beginning and the world’s ruler; but all its ways are full of flowers and blood, flowers and blood.’

The passions and desires of young love, and the frustration of love torn apart by society, is a source of considerable energy that has been harnessed by writers through all of history. Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun’s 1898 novella, Victoria, draws on this energy to fuel his unextinguishable prose and return to the theme of doomed love, a theme characteristic of his impressive...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Fionnuala rated it 4 of 5 stars

The odds were that I wouldn't like this book. It had many of the features I found fault with in the contemporary bestseller "One Day" by David Nicholls: a frustrating main character who falls deeply and irrevocably in love with someone clearly unsuitable who doesn't initially return his regard; many occasions when the pair might have come together but were prevented by misunderstandings and other frustrating circumstances; in short, too much melodrama right up to the very end. So why did I like...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Arwen56 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi

Il sottotitolo recita “Storia di un amore”, ma forse sarebbe stato più appropriato “Stati d’animo nel corso di un amore”. Un amore infelice, ça va sans dire. Victoria, appartenente alle classi alte, e Johannes, figlio di un mugnaio, si conosco sin da piccoli. Le barriere sociali esistono e si sentono, ma loro sono ancora in quell’età in cui è possibile aggirarle, se non proprio ignorarle. Complice la natura e i luoghi, lontani dalla città, si sviluppa così una simpatia che non tarderà a sfociare...more

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Aug 15, 2011 PGR Nair rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this novel in the Eighties. Victoria is one of the most beautiful short novels in Literature.

Though titled Victoria, the protagonist is Johannes, the miller's son. He is a boy who wants to work in a match factory because, “he could get sulphur on his hands so that nobody would dare to shake hands with him”. Later, as a man, he spends his nights writing epic poetry, capping a productive session with loud singing that wakes his neighbours. Johannes is proud to know the stones and the stream...more I read this novel in the Eighties. Victoria is one of the most beautiful short novels in Literature.

Though titled Victoria, the protagonist is Johannes, the miller's son. He is a boy who wants to work in a match factory because, “he could get sulphur on his hands so that nobody would dare to shake hands with him”. Later, as a man, he spends his nights writing epic poetry, capping a productive session with loud singing that wakes his neighbours. Johannes is proud to know the stones and the streams; he looks after birds and trees and scares himself into believing there is an ogre in a nearby cave. As a child he befriends Ditlef and Victoria, son and daughter of the socially aristocratic but economically destitute Lord of the village. He loves Victoria the way a tree loves the sun – eternally, its branches outstretched not to touch but to bask in the radiance of the light. Victoria, however, is forced into marriage with Otto, an upstart aristocrat with a poorer lineage but a great deal of money.

Johannes loves from afar, and Victoria – does she love him at all? Early on, as Johannes stretches his poetic wings, he muses that love is “like the anemone which closes at a breath and dies at a touch”. The novel utilises this concept again and again as first Johannes, and then Victoria, engage in a series of miscommunications, missed opportunities, and harsh words. When Johannes love is in the ascendancy, Victoria brushes him off. Later, she is contrite and declares her affection, but he is hurt and acts cold. The characters are of such a piece that they could love no other, but their equally vast capacity for stubborn indignation ensures they will remain apart.

For Hamsun, love – or even the true essence of a character's personality – is something that exists in bursting spasms of exertion and then fades to cold metal. A character may go months, or even years, being sullen and vindictive, only to suddenly shine with frenzied emotion. What is more, the psychology of a character is something personal and private – their rich inner life is shown to others as a series of grunts and rejection. Johannes and Victoria both share these qualities, and are drawn to the other because of this. To the outside world both seem aloof and cold. Emotion lies dormant until it flares into life, but even then these flares are often hidden from everyone except the individual themselves. Johannes, for example, gloats that he has written Victoria's name on the ceiling of his room, so that he can stare at it and love her from afar. But, he is quick to tell her, he wrote the name so small that not even the cleaning lady can tell it is there. For Johannes it is enough that he knows, his secret a bludgeon to strike the outside world with, only they do not know it. Victoria is much the same, revealing to Johannes when they are much older that she used to walk home the long way every day simply because she knew it was the way he liked to walk, only she never told anyone, not even him. What can we make of these acts of devotion that are hidden from everyone?

Hamsun asks that we make everything of it, but that we keep it to ourselves. Toward the end of this short work, a story is told in miniature of a couple that have loved one another their entire lives. When the husband is struck ill and becomes sickly, he demands his wife leave him, because he has become hideous. In response she hacks away at her 'golden' hair, making herself as ugly as he. Later, when she is sick, she demands the same, but he instead goes to the bathroom and splashes acid on his face, ruining his features so that they can remain together, uniquely one. This short story is the larger work written again, as Victoria and Johannes hurt first the other, and then themselves, again and again throughout their lives. They can never be happy, but their happiness comes from the secret love they – not share, because sharing would ruin it – but possess.

Victoria is a short novel, but its themes are large. As much as the novel is a story of obsession and possession thwarted, it also manages to include much on the then-relevant issue of love between different classes. Johannes, though he becomes a celebrated poet, will never be the social equal of Victoria, and both know it. This adds poignancy to their love, and a valuable (to the characters) sense that they will never truly be together. The characters are written sharply, which renders their love quarrels painful to the reader. It is clear from the first few pages that happiness is not possible for either of them. Victoria muses at one stage that Johannes must be doing alright because he mentions that he is dealing with only 'the small sorrows'. That she expects a person must always live with any sorrow at all suggests much about her character, and that Johannes is, in his way, content with these 'small' sorrows suggests just as much about his. They are lovers in a sense, but lovers who can never consummate physically what they so fervently express in secret to themselves.

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Oct 25, 2011 Ian Graye marked it as to-read

Shelves: a-wish-liszt, reviews

Quotes Below

I have quoted the author at length (in the first comment below), partly to inform my own reading when I get the chance.

Communication

However, what I really hope is that it will help me grapple with the comments of some reviewers to the effect that his characters could have avoided most of their problems, if they had just communicated with each other better.
Poor communication is something we stumble into when we are egotistical and energetic and bullet-proof in our youth.

Hurt

We don't n...more

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Ian Graye I haven't read this, but reading some other reviews, I was prompted to look at his Nobel Prize Speech (a practice which I first adopted when I was wri...more
updated 27 de May 14:19

Ian Graye Kat wrote: "Probably because, as we get older, interesting new bad habits become harder to find."

Haha. I wonder if it depends on how hard we look.
5 de Abr 12:41

Apr 03, 2013 Duarte Branquinho rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

O mestre das letras norueguês, Knut Hamsun, apesar de Nobel da Literatura em 1920, é visto por certos sectores como um dos “escritores malditos”, devido ao seu apoio à Alemanha durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. No entanto, o seu talento excepcional ultrapassa quaisquer barreiras e fá-lo sobreviver. Felizmente, voltou ao panorama editorial nacional pela mão da Cavalo de Ferro que, depois de “Fome” e “Pan”, põe agora ao dispor do público português mais uma obra-prima.

“Victoria”, publicado original...more O mestre das letras norueguês, Knut Hamsun, apesar de Nobel da Literatura em 1920, é visto por certos sectores como um dos “escritores malditos”, devido ao seu apoio à Alemanha durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. No entanto, o seu talento excepcional ultrapassa quaisquer barreiras e fá-lo sobreviver. Felizmente, voltou ao panorama editorial nacional pela mão da Cavalo de Ferro que, depois de “Fome” e “Pan”, põe agora ao dispor do público português mais uma obra-prima.

“Victoria”, publicado originalmente em 1898 e agora entre nós, com tradução de Carlos Aboim de Brito, é um livro onde encontramos claramente o seu autor e entramos no seu mundo, numa esplêndida narrativa que nos exalta os sentidos e os sentimentos.

Contando a história de Johannes, filho de um moleiro, que ama profundamente Victoria, a filha do castelão, Hamsun conduz-nos através da Natureza – omnipresente – e da natureza humana. O jovem Johannes passeia à vontade no bosque em que conhece os lugares, os caminhos, as rochas, as árvores, as flores, os pássaros. Sabe que a barreira social entre si e o seu amor se consubstancia em Otto, o seu rival, com quem Victoria aceita finalmente casar-se, para tentar tirar a sua família aristocrática da ruína financeira. Entretanto, Johannes, solitário, torna-se poeta e escritor, mantendo como musa a sua paixão da adolescência. Vai para a cidade e para outros países, mas a distância não atenua o sentimento mútuo, por tantas vezes disfarçado com frieza, distanciamento ou formalismos. Ainda assim, uma série de desencontros amorosos acaba por suceder. Como nos é dito, há “diversas formas de amor: as que duram e as que perecem”. E vamos conhecê-las, até ao final trágico desta bela e tocante história de amores que não nos deixa indiferentes.

Ler Knut Hamsun – mergulhar no seu universo e deixar-se envolver totalmente – é um prazer, um deleite e, principalmente, um privilégio, nestes tempos acelerados e desligados que hoje atravessamos.(less)

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Oct 31, 2010 Malin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Johannes is the miller's son, pining for Victoria, daughter of the local estate owner. The book starts when he is 14 and she is 10. A lonely child, Johannes wants to play with the rich children, but is normally only called upon to wait on them and row them around when they have guests from the city visiting. He spends most of his time alone, using his fertile imagination to invent solitary games and adventures.

When he is 18, and returns home from school in the city, he hopes he has finally been...more Johannes is the miller's son, pining for Victoria, daughter of the local estate owner. The book starts when he is 14 and she is 10. A lonely child, Johannes wants to play with the rich children, but is normally only called upon to wait on them and row them around when they have guests from the city visiting. He spends most of his time alone, using his fertile imagination to invent solitary games and adventures.

When he is 18, and returns home from school in the city, he hopes he has finally been noticed by Victoria after he rescues a young girl from drowning, in front of Victoria and her rich friends. But she still seems more taken with Otto, a young soldier and friend of the family, and once again his hopes are dashed.

Johannes goes to university, and becomes a poet and a writer. After publishing several poems, he moves on to novels, all the while dreaming of Victoria. He is aware that they are from different social classes, but pines for her nonetheless. As his literary fame grows, he is accepted into higher layers of society, among them the home of the girl he rescued from drowning. He also sees Victoria again, but she appears to be engaged. Still, one evening, when he walks her home, she professes his love for him.

Knowing that her family would never accept his suit, Johannes writes several angsty romantic novels and moves abroad. When he finally returns, years later, he arrives back in time for Victoria's engagement party to Otto. Victoria's family are in great need of money, Otto's family have lots. Camilla, the girl he rescued is also there, and nearly 18, she is very infatuated with him. The romance between Johannes and Victoria seems more impossible than ever.

Victoria was written by Hamsun in 1898, and is apparently considered not only one of his most popular books, but one of the most beautiful and well known love stories in Norwegian literature. If so, the state of romantic literature in Norway before 1898 and since, is deplorable. While I understand what Hamsun was trying to do with his tragic romance, it is just not very effective. Mainly because Johannes is a total weenie and Victoria is given as much personality as a wet rag.

Why should Hamsun bother infusing the object of Johannes' affection and love with any sort of personality or character? The more important thing is the development of the young man and HIS feelings. Also, the lyrical descriptions of the Norwegian country side, those are important. This is period literature, and as a former lit student, I know I shouldn't be upset that writers who lived a 150 years are misogynistic or write only from the POV of the gender they know.

It's not like Jane Austen writes anything but the female point of view in Pride and Prejudice. But at least there is some substance in her books. In Victoria, the whole romance seems based on the characters interacting a few times when they were kids, then pining a whole lot for each other and constructing elaborate fantasies about the other party, a few short meeting as adults, where they have no chance to get to know each other more closely, a lot of angst from Johannes' side, then the book ends.

I read this mainly because we (the Norwegian teachers at the school where I work) are forcing the 10th graders to read the book so they have a literary classic to analyze for their final exam in the spring. I suspect that most of them are going to find the book both boring and deeply uninteresting, and I can't say that I blame them. This is the second Hamsun novel I have read now, and while his descriptions of the Norwegian nature are stunning, his plotting and so called romances leave a lot to be desired, and I don't know if I will read any more of his books unless forced.(less)

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Jan 03, 2010 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Who am I to say that a Nobel prize winning author is just phoning it in? Especially since I’ve yet to find real enjoyment in Hamsun’s writing? If I had just picked this book up and read it I wouldn’t have enjoyed it too much, it’s a tad bit too melodramatic with a bit of the coldness of say Strindberg and the inexplicable manly rage of DH Lawrence’s male characters (but not their latent gayness, which maybe I’ll share my theory on this at some other time in a DH Lawrence review). Can I say that...more Who am I to say that a Nobel prize winning author is just phoning it in? Especially since I’ve yet to find real enjoyment in Hamsun’s writing? If I had just picked this book up and read it I wouldn’t have enjoyed it too much, it’s a tad bit too melodramatic with a bit of the coldness of say Strindberg and the inexplicable manly rage of DH Lawrence’s male characters (but not their latent gayness, which maybe I’ll share my theory on this at some other time in a DH Lawrence review). Can I say that the book reads as being like a too German imitator of certain German writers like Von Kleist, but in an extreme Germanity that is kind of off-putting? Has anything I’ve said so far made any sense at all?

I feel like I should like Hamsun, putting aside his doddering sept(or maybe oct)agaurian support of the Nazi’s (we don’t crucify Yeats for this kind of thing, but I have a feeling it’s a language thing, Norwegian being more German to us all (and I mean us English speakers) than well English), he’s all about the kind of themes I’m normally all for in literature. I just haven’t had a good experience with him yet, but one day I will have to go back and re-read some of the books I read earlier, at the time I was wanting him to be Henry Miller, which he’s not, but which Henry Miller had exuberated over so highly in one of his books that I just had to give Hamsun a chance myself (we’ll overlook the two of three month fascination with Henry Miller I went through in 1997).

But, reading this book because of it’s importance to Jan Kjærstad’s trilogy of excellent novels I find it to be quite interesting, but only in light of the overlaps that Kjærstad created in The Discoverer. What portion of the whole trilogy is a retelling of Victoria? Probably only a small part, but there is something going on Victoria that is more interesting than the tragic love story, with it’s 19th century ridiculousness, that Kjærstad is picking up on and turning it from a minor literary device that almost seems out of place in Hamsun’s work to being insanely effective. Maybe this book (Victoria)would have been more enjoyable to me if it had made more use of certain literary devices that intruded at times. Maybe if they had been more welcomed into the overall work of the novel this would have been something more interesting than it turned out to be for me.

This review has been deliberately obscure. Sorry. The parts I want to talk about would wreck havoc, or work as spoilers, on the enjoyment of one’s reading of the Kjærstad trilogy, which once again I recommend everyone read. You’ll either thank me for it, or hate me for wasting your time.

(after writing this I realized that the book was written in 1898, making it actually a 19th century book,not a 20th century book, and some of the Modernism expectations I might have been expecting from literary devices that Hamsun flirts with would have no real possibility of ever being used by a writer at this time, who is writing in this style. I apologize for my ignorance, but let the review stand as is.)(less)

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Aug 24, 2009 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars

A simple, torturous little book. A friend of mine summed it up best so I will plagiarize completely: Victoria is about two people who love each other so profoundly that all they can do is hurt one another.

In high school, much teenage drama comes from little spurns and cold shoulders—she didn't talk to me at the party, he wasn't listening when we talked on the phone, he was late to dinner, etc. Instead of starting as cafeteria gossip and dying when we grow older, these sorts of innocent rejection...more

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Sep 02, 2010 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: littry-fiction

you would think i would have sopped this thing up with a hunk of bread: doomed lovers, the impossibility of communication, the way we hurt the ones we love? that should have karen's stamp of approval all over it.

but it's like hamsun took a great idea for literary exploration and then constructed this wooden fence all around the emotional appeal and said "you are not coming in!" and i'm like, "dude, come on - just let me care about the characters a little bit". and hamsun's all "no way, jose". s...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Rhonda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am often disappointed in modern fiction and I suppose it to be generally relegated to the purpose of 500 pages of mild interest on long plane trips or boring hotel rooms, an alternative to watching Bonanza reruns in Japanese. Further I think that much of what I see is attuned to agree with a target attitude or values of a particular audience. In this way, the reading audience can simply read, frown at a few things, laugh at yet another and then turn out the light and go to sleep. This unfortun...more I am often disappointed in modern fiction and I suppose it to be generally relegated to the purpose of 500 pages of mild interest on long plane trips or boring hotel rooms, an alternative to watching Bonanza reruns in Japanese. Further I think that much of what I see is attuned to agree with a target attitude or values of a particular audience. In this way, the reading audience can simply read, frown at a few things, laugh at yet another and then turn out the light and go to sleep. This unfortunately is not the way I think of great fiction.

If nothing else, great works of any kind ought to lift the spirit up and out of the body, reaching new heights, twist us around in new perspectives so that we may return to our motley lives and see things anew, somewhat changed for the better, hopefully with greater and better clarity. I have the greatest of faith that this is still occurring today, although in the present case, I see more repudiation of the obvious effort than anything else in my colleagues’ reviews. AS someone else wrote, Victoria is a deceivingly simple book and perhaps that is its downfall. It is unfortunate in the extreme if one waits as long as I did to read this and, I suppose, the rest of Hamsun's works.
This is a relatively simple story about two people in love, but from different classes. We all know what happens when the girl is too good for the country clod, even after he makes good, especially when her father is in desperate need of some extra funds for the lavish lifestyle. When you read it like this, that is all there is, a kind of harlequin romance without all the blowing curtains and the crashing of the sea making hysterically obvious allusions.
Yet this book is a great deal more than this and it is easy to miss. This is a book about love in a way Justin Timberlake would never understand. Moreover, it is about the stages of love, the ones which are not so pretty from the outside, but the ones necessary after a few years of finding someone "really hot." CS Lewis talks about these stages and suggests that remaining in the early stage of lust throughout our lives is akin to becoming a prostitute. Looking at our society and its lack of values today, I have always thought that was rather prophetic of him.
This is also a book about pride and fear, the things which keep us from moving forward with our lives and often seem to freeze us in a solitary age of our lives, kind of like one perpetual high school reunion. It is a beautiful and innocent portrayal of al these things, often merely depicting the events and allowing the reader to comment. Without even realizing it of course, Hamsun leads us to inevitable conclusions about things in our lives, with a subtle kind of pantheism pervading all things. He is at once like a western Dostoevsky who employs literal realism as a backdrop for the protagonists in very subtle ways with interior monologues throughout. It is a short book, under 200 pages, but it’s quite the masterpiece of restraint and thoughtfulness. It might even be worth turning off the cell phone for a while. OMG!
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Sep 25, 2011 Христо Блажев rated it 2 of 5 stars

Кнут Хамсун е достъпен и красив: http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/01/b...

“Виктория” за сметка на горното е сантиментална творба, която след “Глад” направо дразни. Бедно момче е влюбено в богато момиче, но не смее и да мечтае за нея. Успява да замине за големия град и след много труд става известен писател и се завръща у дома. Между него и момичето любовта избухва с нова сила, но обстоятелства от всякакъв характер са против тях до последно. Прочетена отделно, повестта навярно си има достойнства,...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Lo Van den Berg rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: in-my-house

Onlangs heb ik de eerste uitgave van uitgeverij Bright Lights gelezen, het klassieke werkje Victoria van Knut Hamsun. Dit boek gaat over de onmogelijke liefde tussen twee mensen uit verschillende klassen. Het verhaal begint wanneer beide mensen nog kinderen zijn, Johannes is het zoontje van een molenaar, Victoria de dochter van een kasteelheer. Op deze jonge leeftijd spelen zij met elkaar, het klasse verschil is er wel, maar wordt nog niet door deze twee als zodanig gezien. De liefde blijft best...more Onlangs heb ik de eerste uitgave van uitgeverij Bright Lights gelezen, het klassieke werkje Victoria van Knut Hamsun. Dit boek gaat over de onmogelijke liefde tussen twee mensen uit verschillende klassen. Het verhaal begint wanneer beide mensen nog kinderen zijn, Johannes is het zoontje van een molenaar, Victoria de dochter van een kasteelheer. Op deze jonge leeftijd spelen zij met elkaar, het klasse verschil is er wel, maar wordt nog niet door deze twee als zodanig gezien. De liefde blijft bestaan, wordt zelfs heviger naarmate ze ouder worden, echter dan vormen steeds andere barrières de onmogelijkheid van het samengaan van deze twee mensen. Een Romeo en Julia vertelling, alleen hier zit de onmogelijkheid niet in het toeval, maar in de hoofdpersonen zelf. Het is een aandoenlijk verhaal, mooi geschreven in klassieke stijl, maar de karakters blijven wel enigszins vlak.

Johannes wordt later schrijver, hij is aan het arme molenaarsbestaan ontsnapt en gestegen op de maatschappelijke ladder, en gekweld door de alsmaar hunkerende liefde naar Victoria schrijft hij ‘s nachts de meest fantastische verhalen, rechtstreeks ontsproten aan zijn gedachten over de liefde. Reflectie kan niet directer zijn. De liefde als inspiratie bron voor het scheppen van briljante vertellingen. Het is een filosofische roman in plaats van een psychologische. Wat is de liefde? Bestaat de liefde wel zonder een houden van? De liefde bestaat in deze roman slechts in de hoofden van de hoofdpersonen. Het is een obsessie, een idée-fixe, onbereikbaar van beide kanten. Dit is ook wat de roman interessant maakt; de hoofdpersonen komen uit verschillende klassen, maar voor beiden is de ander onbereikbaar, ook al lijken dit soort kunstmatige belemmeringen langzaamaan opgeheven te worden. Een van de bijfiguren in de roman krijgt op een gegeven moment advies van Johannes, en handelt vervolgens pragmatisch, en wordt daardoor gelukkig. Johannes kan dit niet.

Een interessant detail: zij neemt het initiatief tot de toenadering, hij is en blijft nederig. Op zoek naar een onmogelijke balans. Als hij nog jong is, leven de barrières nog niet: hij is strijdbaar, hij zal de anderen laten zien dat hij weet waar de eieren te vinden zijn, hij zal Victoria uit de zeilboot tillen. Is hij dan volwassen geworden, dan zijn er zoveel barrières …

Een aardig verhaal, mooi geschreven, negentiende eeuwse romantiek, een drama.(less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Marija rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, stories-novellas

Hamsun penned an interesting take on the tragic muse tale. However it’s not the story itself that really captures the reader, but how Hamsun digresses from it, through Johannes’ inner musings and the poems and stories that Johannes is writing throughout. It is these sections that transform the basic tale, making it indeed something truly special. There are so many layers of meaning that the reader can extrapolate from these sections...psychological vs. social commentaries on one’s sense of place...more Hamsun penned an interesting take on the tragic muse tale. However it’s not the story itself that really captures the reader, but how Hamsun digresses from it, through Johannes’ inner musings and the poems and stories that Johannes is writing throughout. It is these sections that transform the basic tale, making it indeed something truly special. There are so many layers of meaning that the reader can extrapolate from these sections...psychological vs. social commentaries on one’s sense of place and how this in turn affects the identity of oneself and others’ perceptions of that identity. How these sections are able to demonstrate Johannes’ inner turmoil are wonderfully achieved.

That said, unfortunately I don’t think Hamsun succeeded in writing a convincing love story, or at least, this translation doesn’t really portray a passion that is equally felt by the two doomed lovers. Throughout the story Johannes is haunted by his feelings...a curse he can’t be rid of, no matter what he does. Victoria is his inspiration and his muse, without her in his constant thoughts, he wouldn’t be able to write. In essence, Johannes lives and breathes her. Victoria’s feelings on the other hand, are not so readily apparent. Despite the span of years in which the story takes place, Victoria never seems to grow or change. She very much reminds me of a child who has too many toys...doesn’t know which one she wants to play with, only understanding that she wants them all to be close at hand, ready to be played with. Every move Victoria makes in regards to Johannes seem to be little tests of assurance. Is he still within her grasp? Whenever Victoria is near, Johannes becomes her little puppet. These sections of the text are embarrassing to read, since he essentially fails to recognize his situation. There’s a childlike selfishness attached to Victoria’s every move, and when the reader does come to the final proof of her affections towards Johannes, there can be multiple readings—both good and bad—of what’s said and left unsaid. Heathcliff and Cathy they are not—the love between Victoria and Johannes simply fails to transcend all boundaries.(less)

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Sep 11, 2012 Stebby Julionatan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saya baru bisa memahami novel ini setelah lepas dari halaman 85. Well, ini sungguh-sungguh proses membaca yang melelahkan. Melewatkan 85 halaman di awal dengan telaten (kalau nggak boleh dibilang terkantuk-kantuk), bosen, males dan jengah. Tentu saja sambil berpikir, "Pengarang ini maunya apa ya???" Atau jangan-jangan terjemahannya nih yang ga' beres???

Memang pada akhirnya, ketika saya mendapatkan ide ceritanya. "Dah ngenak banget" gitu lah istilahnya, saya menyadari memang ada fungsi penerjemah...more Saya baru bisa memahami novel ini setelah lepas dari halaman 85. Well, ini sungguh-sungguh proses membaca yang melelahkan. Melewatkan 85 halaman di awal dengan telaten (kalau nggak boleh dibilang terkantuk-kantuk), bosen, males dan jengah. Tentu saja sambil berpikir, "Pengarang ini maunya apa ya???" Atau jangan-jangan terjemahannya nih yang ga' beres???

Memang pada akhirnya, ketika saya mendapatkan ide ceritanya. "Dah ngenak banget" gitu lah istilahnya, saya menyadari memang ada fungsi penerjemah yang buruk di buku ini. Tapi hal itu bisa saya maklumi sebab penerjemah tidak menerjemahkan langsung dari bahasa aslinya (bahasa Norwen), melainkan menerjemahkan dari hasil terjemahan berbahasa Ingris. Tentunya, dalam proses penerjemaan, hal ini menyebabkan terjadinya dua kali proses pergeseran makna.

dan.... tentu saja, letak "prosa lirisnya" itu di mana???

Mungkin akan lain jika kita menerjemahkan langsung dari bahasa aslinya, dan penerjemah menguasai kosakata Bahasa Indonesia yang tepat sehingga nuansa lirisnya tampak. :)

Seperti layaknya sastra klasik (Siti Nurbaya, Risalah Cinta, Layla Majnun) atau mungkin kisah-kisah klasik yang diangkat ke layar lebar (macam Titanic dan Moulin Rouge), Victoria juga mengalami konflik yang sama. Konflik utama pada novel Victoria karya Knut Hamsun ini terletak pada kisah cinta dengan status sosial yang berbeda. Dimana seorang pemuda miskin, Johannes jatuh cinta pada putri pemilik kastil, Victoria. Kisah cinta yang terbentang kasta itu pun harus mengalami dera dan cobaannya. Ada endapan usaha Victoria untuk meyakinkan Johannes bahwa ia mencintainya meski harus menikah dengan orang lain; ada kegigihan Johannes membuat karya "masterpiece"nya untuk membuktikan kepada Victoria (atau mungkin juga kepada keluarganya dan seluruh dunia) bahwa cintanya kepada Victoria itu tidak main-main; oh, come on guys, listen to me!!!, adalah sebuah kisah yang (mungkin) terdengar picisan untuk masyarakat sekarang ini.

Namun, bagaimana seorang Knut Hansum meramu karnyanya sungguh merupakan keasyikan tersendiri dalam membaca Victoria ini. Seperti halnya ketika Hamsun mendiskusikan mengenai apa itu cinta:

Lalu apakah cinta itu? ..... Ia seperti kelopak bunga marguerite yang membuka kelopaknya lebar-lebar ketika malam tiba, dan seperti anemon yang menguncup oleh hembusan nafas dan mati oleh sebuah sentuhan. (hal. 51-52)

Astaga, cintalah yang mampu mengubah jiwa manusia menjadi kebun cendawan, sebuah kebun yang subur dan tanpa malu tempat jamur payung yang misterius dan tak sederhana bertumbuhan. (hal. 52)

Apakah cinta tidak menyebabkan para rahib menyelundup pada malam hari dengan melompati kebun bertembok menjulang? Apakah cinta tidak menyandera orang-orang suci dengan ketololannya dan menggelapkan nalar seorang pangeran? Ia membuat kepala seorang raja tersandar rendah di salah satu sisi singgasananya..... Seperti itulah cinta (hal. 52-53)

Atau bagaimana Hamsun menggambarkan kegalauan Johannes dengan setting dan idiom-idiomnya yang kereeenn abizzz!!! :) Sabuk pasir, mawar yang warnanya hampir memudar, anak berpenyakit kudis yang memakai rambut palsu sedang memelototi teman-temannya bahagia bermain (hal. 90), itulah setting dan idiom yang digunakan Hamsun untuk membangun cerita dan betapa kompleksitasnya pemikiran dan perasaan Johannes saat itu.

Lalu (kembali ke pertanyaan awal saya) di manakah letak unsur lirisnya dalam prosa ini? Saya tak ingin menjawabnya. Saya tidak ingin membukanya dulu. Biarlah pembaca yang menemukannya sendiri karena menurut saya, itulah keasyikan membaca Victoria ini. Itulah inti ceritanya.

Intinya, membaca sebuah sastra klasik memang membutuhkan ketekunan dan keuletan untuk dapat mencernanya dengan baik. "Membosankan!" emang iya. TApi, setelah kita mengetahui pesannya, inti ceritanya, ternyata asyik juga lho...(less)

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May 08, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

A short simple and profound love story which captures the intensity, passion and hopelessness of love; especially young love. The two protagonists Johannes and Victoria fall in love in early teenage and the story develops over a period of years. They manage to hurt each other, be shy, clumsy and avoid sharing their feelings. The language of this book is poetic and lyrical. Reading this as an adult; it was moving, but I wonder how I would have felt about it as a teenager; it may have had a more p...more

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May 30, 2009 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: swedish-and-norwegian, why-not-call-it-poetry

Suppose you met someone when you were young, and something happened that convinced you beyond reasonable doubt that they loved you, and you loved them. And then, suppose that there were all sorts of practical problems, and that, on the rare occasions when you did meet them, you said the wrong thing, or they said the wrong thing, and people were hurt, or lost their tempers, and you started to wonder if you'd just hallucinated it all. And that this continued for your whole life.

Well, if you've eve...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Michael William West rated it 4 of 5 stars

Crushing, crushing inevitability. Macabre and surgical dissection of deathless love savaged by fragile, chimeric institutions which still haunt us today, although they are metamorphosised ghosts of class and respectability. An exorcism of Knut Hamsun's own idiosyncratic insecurities (he named his own daughter after the novel; why not just slap a hag's curse on the poor thing?), a sinew snapping, unappreciated novella of lives devoted to the brutality of human emotion. I can understand, at first...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Åsmund rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, norsk

Johannes og Victoria har vært forelsket siden de var små. De kretser rundt hverandre som to tvillingsoler som holdes sammen av den andres gravitasjon.

Vakkert og romantisk kunne det ha vært; men Hamsun vil det annerledes.

På samme måte som Ibsen bruker sine skuspill for å kritisere og belyse samfunnets underfundigheter virker det som Hamsun bruker Johannes og Victoria for å eksemplifisere at folk kan være slemme med hverandre på tross av, eller kanskje på grunn av, at de er glad i hverandre.

Sam...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Jason Mashak rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hamsun did well with this light-heavy story. He must've had similar influences to F. Scott Fitzgerald for crafting poetic prose, to Hermann Hesse for exploring mystical self-discovery, and William Shakespeare would be proud of his semi-detached delivery of tragic ends that don't leave the reader feeling jaded.

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Apr 09, 2012 Ingvild Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am very fascinated by Knut Hamsun and the way he writes. The story itself might be a little tragically and over-dramatic, but it's the language and formulations that's really good. He lived over a hundred years ago and still he can make senteneces that send goose bumps down your back! It's wonderful, just wonderful. The nature is beautiful, the flowers are gorgeous and the love is described to be powerful and tillating.

But I have to say...I had a really tough time reading it, because it's so....more

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May 19, 2011 Vår Ane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this book for class, and remember no one but me really enjoyed it.
It's a tragic love story, but about so much more. It's also somehow a classic story about love where the lovers never end up together, and they understand that, but still they can't seem to keep away from each other. They destroy everything they could have had together just to make each other misserable.
The book is also set in a time where the class distinction was a reality, but still its pretty timeless.
It's defini...more

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Nov 29, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Had a good beginning. Got really sappy. What works for Hamsun is his odd characters. There are odd characters here but what is missing about halfway through is a lack of his comedy. His greatest ability is his bravery. He does this by adding things that really have no bearing as far as the story goes. He is best when the reader goes, "What in the hell?" and has to laugh - either you laugh or you hate Hamsun. He does the relationship so called "power struggle" well, too (PAN is best example). Thi...more

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Feb 22, 2011 Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are some books that have a lasting impact on one’s life, books that leave an indelible mark on one’s deepest emotions. For me there are a number, but Victoria by Knut Hamsun occupies a special place as the most captivating and heart-breaking love story ever written. I read it in my mid-teens, in the full flood of my most romantic period.

It’s a short novel; I finished it in less than two hours in a single sitting, overwhelmed by the poetic intensity of the prose, overwhelmed by the story o...more There are some books that have a lasting impact on one’s life, books that leave an indelible mark on one’s deepest emotions. For me there are a number, but Victoria by Knut Hamsun occupies a special place as the most captivating and heart-breaking love story ever written. I read it in my mid-teens, in the full flood of my most romantic period.

It’s a short novel; I finished it in less than two hours in a single sitting, overwhelmed by the poetic intensity of the prose, overwhelmed by the story of Victoria and Johannes, two people put on earth to love one another. They do, but there is no happy ending; events, social class, expectations, a sense of duty and circumstances all get in the way. It’s a story of love only fully declared in death, only fully revealed in an ending that absolutely numbed me, reduced me to uncontrollable tears.

I’ve now read it again, though I never thought I would; the first time was painful enough. But it came up in a discussion recently, so I decided to take the risk, if risk is the right word, with the aim of refreshing my memory and adding this appreciation.

I did not recapture the same raw emotions, knowing what was to happen, knowing the course planned by fate and the writer. Besides, I’m older, a little more controlled, not quite so ready to give over to same teenage passions. Well…that’s not entirely true. There may not have been the same quantity of tears, but there were tears, terrible sadness over beautiful and frustrated love.

If you know Hamsun’s work you will know just how wonderfully he writes, how lyrical and poetic his prose. There are some passages that just leap out, memorable and brief. Here are a few of my favourites;

The days came and went: mild, lovely days filled with the bliss of solitude and with sweet memories of childhood – a renewed call to the earth and the sky, the air and the hills.

If she only knew that all his poems had been written to her and no one else, every single one, even the one to Night, even the one to the Spirit of the Swamp. But that was something she would never know.

What, then, is love? A wind whispering among the roses – no, a yellow phosphorescence in the blood. A danse macabre in which even the oldest and frailest hearts are obliged to join. It is like the marguerite which opens wide as night draws on, and like the anemone which closes at a breath and dies at a touch. Such is love.

…it is strange to think that all I’ve ever managed to do was to come in to the world and love you and now say goodbye to life.

Their days came and went; they came close, but they never managed to blend; there is too much misunderstanding, too many things left unsaid. So, yes, you’ve probably been here before, you will know the mood – it’s a story of unrequited love, Norwegian echoes of Romeo and Juliet, of Heathcliff and Cathy. In its directness and simplicity Victoria is a peerless story of an imperfectly perfect love, one that will remain with me forever.
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Mar 22, 2009 Gertrude & Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: german-scandanavian-library

Victoria by Knut Hamsun is a bittersweet tale of two youths, in a trance of passion, but rudely awakened by fate's cruel ways. The two lovers - Johannes and Victoria - fall deeply in love and are blissfully happy, but their enchantment ends in mutual self-destruction and unfulfilled love.

Hamsun sketches a powerful and disturbing portrait of Johannes's inner conflicts. This melancholy side of Johannes is reminiscent of The Scream painted by his fellow countryman Edvard Munch. Johannes is governed...more

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Sep 08, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the most sentimental and straightforward of all the Hamsun novel I've read, but it was still very enjoyable, especially the second half of the book. The plot is typical of Hamsun, featuring obsessive love, self-destructive behavior, and characters who try to deny the things that they want most and do the opposite of what they should do. However, the level of Hamsun's distinctive craziness (e.g., midgets, neuroses, nervous breakdowns, harelips, murder) is much more subdued in this novel.

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Jun 11, 2011 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

A bit on the melodramatic side, Hamsun's Victoria is nonetheless a memorable little story. I disagree with the reviewer who calls the book misogynistic; it's simply told from the male protagonist's point of view.
I read this book in my early 20s, and it had a powerful effect on me. Having just read it again 20 years later, I found myself a bit more critical. Having said that, I still enjoyed the story very much,

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Feb 26, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not a reviewer. I just want to say I loved this book. Parts made me well up with tears. Some of that had to do with the main male character being a poet and how all his work is for this one woman he is in love with but will never have. It was sweet.

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Oct 27, 2011 Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hamsun won the Nobel back when it was impossible for prolific Scandinavians not to win it. This sentimental work is utterly forgettable unless your taste in romance leans toward the adolescent.

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Aug 09, 2011 Brett added it · review of another edition

A beautiful, beautiful book. One of the most poetic books I have ever read. Of course, being Hamsun, it's not a happy story - but he tells it with such poetry. A definite read!

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About Knut Hamsun

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920 "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil." He insisted that the intricacies of the human mind ought to be the main object of modern literature, to describe the "whisper of the blood, and the pleading of the bone marrow". Hamsun pursued his literary program, debuting in 1890 with the psychological novel Hunger.

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Quotes from Victoria

“Slik var kjærligheten.
Den kunde ruinere sin mand, gjenreise ham og brændemeærke ham igjen; den kunde elske mig idag, dig imorgen og ham imorgen nat, så ubestandig var den. Men den kunde også holde fast som et ubrytelig segl og blusse like uutslukelig til dødens stund, for så evig var den.” — 3 people liked it

“Og kjærligheten blev verdens ophav og verdens hersker, men alle dens veier er fulle av blomster og blod, blomster og blod.” — 2 people liked it

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