Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (Green Integer: 83) (Paperback)

~ Knut Hamsun (Author), Gunnvor Stallybrass (Author), Oliver (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Related to and sometimes paired with Hamsun's Under the Autumn Stars, this beautifully lyric fiction picks up with the same characters as the other book, but is set in time six years later. The central character of the former novel, Knut Pedersen (Hamsun's real name), is more an observer in this work. His former friend Grindhusen has grown from stubborn independence to a shifty and vacillating man; and his companion Lars Falkenberg has dwindled into a small land-holder with a perpetually pregnant wife from whom he is deeply estranged. These two comedians play out a tragi-comedy that is painful through the very irony and humaneness with which Hamsun paints his figures.

Norwegian Knut Hamsun was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920.

About the Author

Kurt Hamsun is a Nobel Prize-winning novelist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Green Integer (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892295733
• ISBN-13: 978-1892295736
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,774,698 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Return, March 28, 2008

By	D. Mason "Dav1d" (Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When do you play 'on muted strings'? When you are 50 and seeking to make sense of the path you trod. This is the duo of tales Hamsun produced in his middle years, that draws the curtain on his early triumphs and (as it transpires) sets the scene for his later masterpieces the Wayfarers and Growth of the Soil. The division between the narrator and the author is threadbare here, artistically necessary; and through this you get an insight into the characters that burned so brightly in the earlier works but who were much more detached from the writer. Hamsun sets this scene in the opening pages, the sense of being back to somewhere he knew before. And then the muted strings can play. A masterpiece again.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The follow-up tale of the free-roaming European vagabond, October 22, 2006

By	The Northern Light "The Kingdom of God Is Wit... (Europa, Close to Ultima Thule) - See all my reviews

The book picks up 6 years after the first part ended, in this trilogy about Knut Pedersen, a free-spirited worker of the land. He once again seeks work at various farms, and eventually returns to the farm of Captain Falkenberg. The years have not been kind to the farm, but through a lot of work and dedication, Pedersen and the kind and proper farm boy, fix the farm up. I really enjoyed the parts where they work the land and the various tasks they perform on the farm; it's like a glimpse of a future book by Hamsun that he won the Nobel's prize for. The prose is wonderful, and you have a hard time putting the book down.

The book then engages in more about the human condition, with adultery and alcoholism taking its heavy toll on the farm. But the good thing is; punishment is put where its due and you really see the effects that unfaithfulness and alcohol causes. I loved the book, and the political views of our beloved "right-wing" anti-modern conservative author really shine through. To be sure one of Hamsun's top books, and a worthy follow-up to "Under the autumn star". Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition)