Hunger

by Knut Hamsun Narrated by LibriVox Community

Overview

Hunger (Norwegian: Sult) is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun and was published in its final form in 1890. The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. It hails the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous novel. Written after Hamsun's return from an ill-fated tour of America, Hunger is loosely based on the author's own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890. Set in late 19th century Kristiania, the novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis. While he vainly tries to maintain an outer shell of respectability, his mental and physical decay are recounted in detail. His ordeal, enhanced by his inability or unwillingness to pursue a professional career, which he deems unfit for someone of his abilities, is pictured in a series of encounters which Hamsun himself described as 'a series of analyses.' In many ways, the protagonist of the novel displays traits reminiscent of Raskolnikov, whose creator, Fyodor Dostoevsky, was one of Hamsun's main influences. The influence of naturalist authors such as Emile Zola is apparent in the novel, as is his rejection of the realist tradition.(Introduction by Wikipedia)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“Knut Hamsun’s writing is magical, his sentences are glowing, he could write about anything and make it alive.” —Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New York Times Book Review

 “The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.” —Isaac Bashevis Singer

 “The classic novel of humiliation, even beyond Dostoyevsky . . . Lyngstad’s translation restores to the English-speaking reader one of the cold summits in modern prose literature.” —George Steiner

Herald

Disturbing and difficult as this nightmarish novel is, it is a work of imaginative brilliance that resonates in our own day

Rebecca West

Hamsun has the qualities that belong to the very great, a complete omniscience on human nature

London Review of Books

Hunger was published in 1890 and its power has not faded

Time Out

One of the most disturbing novels in existence

Observer

Hunger is the crux of Hamsun's claims to mastery. This is the classic novel of humiliation, even beyond Dostoevsky

Duncan McClean

Hunger is undoubtedly one of the most important novels of the modern age. At last it has found a translator capable of doing justice to its immense power and complexity: Lyngstad's deserves to become the standard English version

Times Literary Supplement

An excellent new translation . . . this Hunger deserves to be the standard English version

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170424467
Publisher:	LibriVox
Publication date:	08/25/2014

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