ENIGMA LIFE KNUT [Paperback]

R FERGUSON (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1988

The beginning of Robert Ferguson's introduction is arresting. 'If they've heard of him at all, people tend to know two things about Knut Hamsun: that he wrote "Hunger", and that he met Hitler. Those who know a little more know that in "Hunger", "Mysteries" and "Pan", he produced novels that have had a decisive effect on European and American literature of the twentieth century. Ernest Hemingway tried to write like him; so did Henry Miller, who called him 'the Dickens of my generation'; 'never has the Nobel Prize been awarded to one worthier of it'. Thomas Mann wrote in 1929. Hermann Hesse called him 'my favourite author'. Russian writers like Andre Bely and Boris Pasternak read him keenly in their youth, and Andre Gide thought him arguable superior to Dostoevsky. They all read him - Kafka, Brecht, Gorky, Wells, and Musil. Rebecca West described him as the possessor of 'qualities that belong to the very great - the completest omniscience about human nature'. And Isaac Bashevis Singer stated that Hamsun was quite simply 'the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect - his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism'. Singer, in his foreword to "Hunger", goes on to say that 'The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun'. Yet in discussions of the history of modern literature, Hamsun's name is rarely mentioned. His reputation, which probably reached its height around 1929 with the world celebrations of his seventieth birthday, was in ruins by the end of the Second World War. Alone among the major European writers, he had supported Hitler. Brazenly alone, he had hailed he rise and bemoaned the fall of the epitome of spiritual tyranny in recent history'. What a subject, and in this, the first biography, Robert Ferguson brilliantly gets the measure of this awkward, paradoxical writer, or, as he calls him 'a multiple paradox, a living riddle; a human question-mark'. '"Enigma" is scholarly, very readable, warm, intelligent, shrewd, refreshingly unpretentious, invaluable, essential. A magnificent achievement' - Martin Seymour-Smith, "Washington Post". '"Enigma" is simply a pleasure to read. When Ferguson writes of the demonic muse that haunted Hamsun throughout his life, we glimpse something profound about the creative act of writing, and we come very close to the exalted emotion that every writer feels - or hopes to feel. Indeed, the highest praise that can be bestowed on Ferguson's work is to declare that "Enigma" is one of the most moving, inspiring and exciting books on the subject of writing that I have ever encountered' - Jonathan Kirsch, "Los Angeles Times". 'Robert Ferguson's is the first full length English biography of Knut Hamsun and no one could have done a more expert job' - John Carey, "Sunday Times".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the 1920s, Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun was perhaps the most influential author in Europe; Gide, Gorky, Kafka, and Hemingway were among his admirers. Though famous for his acute psychological insight, and one of the first to use interior monologue and stream-of-consciousness techniques, he is known above all as an extraordinarily complex and paradoxical man: an ardent Norwegian patriot who became an active supporter of Nazism. Ferguson argues that it was Hamsun's pathological dislike of the English rather than love of Germany that led him to betray his country. This biography, which draws on a wealth of material, manages to make the "enigma" of Hamsun comprehensible, particularly to the English-speaking public that has never known him well. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Ulla Sweedler, Univ. of California Lib., San Diego
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Robert Ferguson was born in Blackpool in 1948. After completing Norwegian studies at University College in London, he took up a state scholarship in Norway in1983, and has since then lived in Oslo. Ferguson is an award-winning dramatist and has translated and adapted several of Ibsen's plays for the BBC. Apart from Henrik Ibsen: A New Biography he is also the author of two other highly acclaimed biographies, Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun and Henry Miller: A Life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (May 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374520933
• ISBN-13: 978-0374520939
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Ferguson was born in the UK in 1948 and left school in 1966. He worked at a number of jobs including postman, hospital porter, deckhand on a trawler, factory worker, cook, driver etc before enrolling at UCL, London in 1976 and taking a course in Scandinavian Studies. He graduated in 1980. In 1983 he emigrated to Norway and has made his home there since. He began his literary career as a radio dramatist, translating and adapting for radio works by Knut Hamsun and Henrik Ibsen for the BBC. He has also written eleven original radio plays and twice won the BBC Methuen Giles Cooper Award for Best Radio Drama, in 1984 and 1986. His first literary biography was Enigma: The Life of Knut Hamsun, which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Best Biography Award in 1987. It also won the University of London J.G.Robertson Award. In 1996 Enigma was dramatized as a 6-part television series by NRK (Norwegian State Television) As well as literary biographies and a history of the Vikings, Ferguson has written two novels, published only in Norwegian.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not hungry, December 31, 2002

By 

Kirk Alex - See all my reviews
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This review is from: ENIGMA LIFE KNUT (Paperback)

I wanted the writing here to be as great as Knut Hamsun's own Hunger--and of course, it simply can't be. I'm not at all sure that it's Ferguson's fault. I wanted to know what Hamsun's mindset was at the time of struggling through his masterpieces like Hunger and Pan and Victoria, I wanted to be able to get inside the great writer's mind...and it just can't be, because the author of this bio wasn't there. If you want psychological insights and great writing you must go to the source: Hamsun's own novels. Yes, you'll get dates and details here in Enigma, but that does not make for interesting and/or engaging reading. I was disappointed. The gifted, self-taught Knut Hamsun remains a favorite, though. One of the giants.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable and Thought-Provoking Read, February 26, 2009

By 

K. McKowen (Providence, RI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: ENIGMA LIFE KNUT (Paperback)

I don't take the time to read many biographies, but I have become very intrigued by Knut Hamsun and his writing in the last few years, and so decided to learn a little bit more about his controversial life by checking out Enigma. From the very beginning, I was drawn in by Ferguson's deep research and careful writing, and found that I couldn't put the book down for long without feeling a need to jump right back in. Hamsun led a life that continues to confuse and even anger his modern fans and detractors, and so it is no surprise that his biography is unbelievably interesting.

If you are looking to at last discover the evidence to claim unequivocally that Hamsun was or was not a Nazi, don't bother looking here. On the other hand, if you are looking to gain insight into who the man actually was and what he actually believed (for better or worse), Enigma is well worth a read. Hamsun was a character as fragmented as the ones he wrote about, and Ferguson does an admirable job bringing all the different sides of him to life through narratives, articles, letters, and pictures.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hamsun was a Screwy Guy, May 11, 2010

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Cwn_Annwn (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ENIGMA LIFE KNUT (Paperback)

I always thought Hamsuns own personal screwiness imposed itself onto the characters of his books. Depending on who you talk to he is either overrated or underrated as a writer. I find him to be a very good but not quite great writer. I find it ironic that so many Hitler heads and Euro "new right" types are so into Hamsun because he said he thought Hitler was cool when he was like 90 years old but with the exception of Growth of the Soil he is a very Jewy type writer and was even more so that way in his personal life. Realisticly his pro-Hitler proclamations were probably more than anything due to his life long anti-English sentiments. You have to look long and hard to find anything Hamsun ever said that was even mildly racist. During WW2 there was a famous (at least within Denmark) writer named Nexř that went to Stalin Russia and made radio broadcasts into the west during the war. Even though Stalin killed more people than Hitler nobody really held it against him but Hamsun will pay the price for a long time to come for his quasi support of Hitler.

Like I said Hamsun was a screwy guy. There was a woman who Hamsun claimed was stalking him and sending nasty letters about him to many of his acquaintances. The police watched and followed her for months and found no evidence of any of this. I have to believe that Hamsun orchestrated the whole thing, even sending out the letters himself. He did however live many places and had some interesting observances. On America he says Americans think "the meaning of a work of art is reduced to its cash value" and "instead of founding an intellectual elite, America has established a mulatto stud farm". His observavtions on Muslims while passing through Turkey were "the Koran has created an attitude towards life which cannot be debated or discussed". Overall this was a decent biography of Hamsun.