When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychological...
read full description
reviews
Oct 25, 2011
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 an More...
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 an More...
Aug 15, 2011
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 a More...
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 a More...
Oct 31, 2010
Malin Engdahl
rated it: 
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 fin More...
When he is 18, and returns home from school in the city, he hopes he has fin More...
Jan 03, 2010
Greg
rated it: 
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 th
More...
10 comments
like
(12 people liked it)
Aug 24, 2009
Kyle
rated it: 
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 innoce More...
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 innoce More...
Sep 02, 2010
karen
rated it:
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". an More...
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". an More...
22 comments
like
(33 people liked it)
Aug 11, 2010
Rhonda
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 25, 2011
Христо
rated it: 
Кнут Хамсун е достъпен и красив: http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/01/blog...
“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 More...
“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 More...
May 08, 2011
Paul
rated it: 
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...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 30, 2009
Manny
rated it:
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.
W More...
2 comments
like
(10 people liked it)
Jul 31, 2011
Åsmund
rated it:
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 g More...
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 g More...
May 19, 2011
Vår Ane
rated it:
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.
More...
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.
More...
Feb 22, 2011
Anastasia
rated it:
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, overwhelme More...
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, overwhelme More...
5 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Mar 22, 2009
Gertrude & Victoria
rated it:
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. Joha More...
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. Joha More...
Sep 08, 2010
John
rated it:
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.
Jun 11, 2011
Bob
rated it:
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,
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,
Oct 27, 2011
Martin
rated it:
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.
Aug 09, 2011
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!
Apr 24, 2011
Erik
rated it:
I rather liked this more than his Pan or Mysteries as the story is more sad than absurdist. Implicit to it is a criticism of capitalist class structures, reminiscent of his Hunger.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 22, 2011
Christian
rated it:
A classic tale of fated love that is not to be. The emotions of this story really take off from the engagement party on, prior to that point there was the typical European reserve.
Jan 06, 2011
Oda
rated it:
Overrated. Just because he was one of the first to write a book like this in Norway, doesn't mean it's very good. I like the "blomster og blod" quote though.
Jun 12, 2009
Kitty
rated it:
More like 3.5 stars. This book grew on me. But you can only read so many tales of enduring star-crossed love at first sight without wondering why these characters remain so attached to one another.
Feb 19, 2009
Katrinka
rated it:
Really pleasantly surprised by this one. The cover wasn't lying when it described the book as "deceptively simple." It's like Werther, without the sappiness.
Dec 17, 2008
Luna
rated it:
this is one of the books where
you have to get really comfortable
because once you start you won't close it
until its been read.
you have to get really comfortable
because once you start you won't close it
until its been read.
Jul 31, 2011
Kari
rated it:
A moving book; poetic and romantic notions of how love should be; fueled by that fact that it is an impossible love. Beautiful language.
Jan 27, 2011
Jana
rated it:
I am not overly ecstatic about Victoria. It seemed like a typical in the white gloves romance where women are gentle primroses and men are educated soldiers and gentlemen. On the covers it says that it's one of the most important Norwegian books of all time. I'm not sure why, and I can prove that Barbara Cartland wrote few alike romances in her own time, that I read when I was 13.
Aug 08, 2011
Philip
rated it:
An absolutely beautiful novel. One of the very few books to ever make me cry.
Jan 18, 2012
Dimitri
rated it:
Not much to say about this little book, other than that it is heartbreaking. It fantastically captures and delivers all the little heartbreaks that anyone who has been young and in love will know.
Jun 13, 2011
Jimmy
rated it:
2.5 stars. 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.
More...
