Dreamers (New Directions Classics) (Paperback)

by Knut Hamsun (Author)
Key Phrases: telegraph station, hundred crowns, Miss van Loos, Elise Mack, Trader Mack (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Previously unpublished in this country, this short novel by Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize in 1920, shows a lighter side of a writer best known for his more nihilistic work. Set in an isolated Norwegian fishing village, the novel is a romantic comedy of sorts, centering on Ove Rolandsen, an antiheroic and often inebriated aspiring inventor. Rolandsen is a schemer, a liar and a not particularly effective womanizer. He bears a distinct resemblance to the protagonists of better-known Hamsun novels such as Hunger and Mysteries. Rolandsen is engaged to the local parson's housekeeper, yet he has eyes for both the local sexton's daughter and for the daughter of Trader Mack, the town's most prosperous businessman. Rolandsen has invented a new process for manufacturing fish-glue, the commodity which is the main source of Trader Mack's wealth; yet Rolandsen, who works as a telegraph operator, lacks sufficient funds to get his invention out into the world. Hamsun handles his plot with a light and assured touch, and the novel is considerably more charming than its location and subject matter might imply. But the book's ambition is disappointingly minor compared to what Hamsun was capable of in his best works, and Geddes's rather stiff translation fails to bring across the liveliness with which Hamsun's prose has been rendered by more assured hands.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Written in the 1920s, this was the Nobel prize-winning author's humorous tale of Ove Rolandsen, denizen of a small Norwegian fishing village. Rolandsen's adventures include romancing the curate's wife, fighting a giant, and opposing the town's fish-glue magnate.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213218
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213219
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #996,998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Hamsun gem of a romantic tale in new translation., August 27, 1999

By	[e-mail] "horsehoarder" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews

Dreamers is another wonderful non-romantic romance involving ordinary people in a small Norweigen village from the master of the genre, Knut Hamsun. However, this new translation is a great dissapointment to me after reading the 1920's Alfred A Knopf edition. Much of the colour & humor are lost in this edition. I would strongly suggest using Amazon's used book search & auctions to find the out of print Alfred A Knopf version as it is a far superior translation to this edition that will bring many more smiles and laughs to the reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful, humorous well-crafted novel, June 11, 2002

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Hamsun is an author everyone should read - his clear and precise language, his ability to pick details that build fully human characters, and his wicked sense of humor all make for reading at its best.

In this novel, a young but ambitious telegraph operator who is a womanizing drunk as well as a clever inventor seeks capital to make his dreams of better, cheaper fish-glue with dye as a byproduct. Along the way one meets the fiancee he can't get rid of, a curate with a hell-fire-brimstone manner and a wife who is spoiled and childish, lay-helpers with hidden hatreds ... a whole village of believable characters acting in very human ways.

This is not a deep, philosophical novel but through the characters' actions there is a sense of hopefulness that overpowers the foibles.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars SMALL VILLAGE CASANOVA TRIUMPHS, February 6, 2005

By	Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Ove Rolandson is what a modern audience would call a "playa". He goes around flirting with the factory girls, is the sire of a couple of illegitimate children, proposed to Elise Mack, the daughter of the local fish glue magnate, and become engaged to Olga, the sexton's daughter. And he also has an eye on the new curate's wife. As you can see, he has a lot on his plate. He's not quite the smooth operator that he wishes to be though. While working at the telegraph station and getting drunk and picking up chicks seems to be his only pasttimes, he harbors a secret desire to be an inventor and an entrepreneur. He is secretly experimenting on different methods of extracting fish glue from parts that others see as useless, that, if he can get them patented, could make him a competitor of Trader Mack, the boss of the town.

Dreamers is lighter novel than Hamsun usually writes. It's basically a comic work. We have almost-murders, almost-affairs, almost-dirty dealings, but nothing ever brings the book down into the realm of "heavy" literature. It almost feels like a Shakespearean comedy such as Much Ado About Nothing. Nobody gets hurt in the end. At bottom, most of the characters here have a core of goodness that never lets the plot degenerate into tragedy.

This was a good light read. For an example of more intense works by Hamsun, I would check out "Hunger" and "Pan", the latter novel showing how the same elements we find in "Dreamers" can be melded into something more primal and powerful. I would also recommend Shakespeare's comedies such as "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Love's Labor's Lost". Also, check out "Harvest" by Jean Giono for a similar take on a pastoral subject with more intensity.