Victoria: a Love Story Pb (Picador) [Paperback]

Knut Hamsun (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Norwegian (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Picador (January 14, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330248871
• ISBN-13: 978-0330248877
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,294,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First love, February 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Victoria: A Love Story (Hardcover)

"Victoria" is an archetypal love story for young people, one might say. Devoid of carnal connotations, the novel is an eerie, poetic portrayal of the complicated feelings of youth. The desire is never matched by the corresponding action; the lovers confused, unsure, uncertain, longing for explanation that is never offered. Torn apart by contradictory sentiments, they attract their loved ones only to push them apart when they come. "Victoria" is an astonighingly accurate account of budding sensuality and the torment of first love. So many of us have no clue how to tame the soul gone wild; whether to let oneself flow with the current, or swim backwards, against all odds - and more to the point - so many of us have no idea how to react to equally wild and incomprehensible behavior of the loved ones.

"Victoria" is only a minor work of Knut Hamsun, overshadowed by other novels and novellas, but after over a century, it's still fresh enough to charm the young, sensitive people. For me, the experience of rereading this novel after fourteen years feels like a postcard sent from my own self; to be read when I am old and wrinkled. Indeed, I feel like the eldest mushroom in the world, one who has forgotten the first love and how different the air smelled back then...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tormented first love, August 6, 2004

By 

HORAK (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Victoria: a Love Story Pb (Picador) (Paperback)

"Victoria" is the tormented story of Johannes Moller, the miller's son, and Victoria, a Chamberlain's daughter living at an unnamed Castle. Although they have known each other since their childhood, their love is bound to fail, mainly for social reasons. Victoria's family want her to marry Lieutenant Otto because they need the son-in-law's money to restore their former glory, a marriage of convenience in other words.
Johannes is deeply in love with Victoria, musing about the fragrance emanating from her body, the shape of her shoulders and body. He is driven to despair by Victoria, her shifting mood, saying she loves him but very often refusing to meet him, avoiding him. Johannes has moments of hallucinatory nightmares, seeing strange figures, human heads rolling on the pavement in front of him, voices shouting at him. He is seized by icy fears and sees barking fish...
Johannes also feels that he doesn't fit in Victoria's world and the society of the castle remains distant to him. "My dear young lady, the place is yours, not mine" he tells her. When Johannes meets Lieutenant Otto, Victoria's fiance, a feeling of utter despair descends on him because the reason for Victoria's attachment to Otto is solely due to the fact that he is "well-bred".
A novel of unhappiness, missed opportunities and loneliness occasioned by greed, social pressure and indecisiveness.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable, Disturbing, A Masterpiece, October 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Victoria: a Love Story Pb (Picador) (Paperback)

When people ask me who my favorite writers are, I am increasingly beginning my response with the name of "Knut Hamsun". This book is one of the reasons why. It is truly one of the most moving stories I've ever encountered. "Romeo and Juliet" turned backwards and without the release of actual declarations of love. Victoria's final letter to Johannes would make the hardest hearted tyrant break into tears. It's really one of the great injustices of modern literary culture that stagnant, unrealistic, hackneyed, preachy prose like John Steinbeck and empty glitz like F. Scott Fitzgerald is celebrated in the USA while Hamsun is forgotten. There was a reason why he won the Nobel Prize. I strongly recommend this (and all his books)to anyone interested in excellent free flowing prose with a psychological bent.