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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First love, February 23, 2002
By A Customer
"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...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most beautiful European love-story ever?, October 7, 2006
This is probably Knut Hamsun's' masterpiece when it comes to love stories, and possibly one of Europe's most beautiful love stories. The book is about the son of the old miller, and the daughter of the local "nobleman", the owner of the "Castle". From they are very small and all the way up until the very end he loves her. The parts where they are in the cave and on the island are so beautiful and melancholic. But he being the miller's son, and her being part of the "upper-class", the love is an impossible one. Various circumstances increase the distance between them, and the impossibility of their love, but I won't reveal much. The story is just so beautiful and sad, that it should be required reading for all.
Then comes the fun part, the author; Knut Hamsun, probably Norway's greatest author of all time, was a die-hard "right-wing" anti-modern conservative. This is quite amusing, because all the liberal and anti-European readers just can't wrap their mind around the fact that a person that wrote such beautiful prose was so "abhorrent" in their twisted view. One of his 5 best books and one whose story you'll carry with you forever. Highly recommended!
(I read a different edition)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A tormented first love, August 6, 2004
"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.
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