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Knut Hamsun

Hunger (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) Paperback – February 1, 1998

by Knut Hamsun (Author), Sverre Lyngstad (Editor, Translator, Introduction)

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A modernist masterpiece: the Nobel Prize winner’s first and most important novel

A Penguin Classic

First published in Norway in 1890, Hunger probes the depths of consciousness with frightening and gripping power. Contemptuous of novels of his time and what he saw as their stereotypical plots and empty characters, Knut Hamsun embarked on “an attempt to describe the strange, peculiar life of the mind, the mysteries of the nerves in a starving body.” Like the works of Dostoyevsky, it marks an extraordinary break with Western literary and humanistic traditions.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Classics
Publication date

February 1, 1998
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

7.76 x 5.1 x 0.43 inches
ISBN-10

0141180641
ISBN-13

978-0141180649
Lexile measure

910L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“Knut Hamsun’s writing is magical, his sentences are glowing, he could write about anything and make it alive.” —Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New York Times Book Review

“The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun.” —Isaac Bashevis Singer

“The classic novel of humiliation, even beyond Dostoyevsky . . . Lyngstad’s translation restores to the English-speaking reader one of the cold summits in modern prose literature.” —George Steiner

About the Author

Knut Hamsun (1858–1952) was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright hailed by many as one of the founders of modern literature. Born to a poor peasant family in central Norway, he worked as a schoolmaster, sheriff’s assistant, laborer, store clerk, farmhand, and streetcar conductor in both Scandinavia and America before establishing himself as a successful playwright and novelist. His first novel, Hunger (1890), was an immediate critical success; he went on to write the novels Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), Victoria (1898), and The Growth of the Soil (1917), the last of which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920.

Sverre Lyngstad (1922–2011; translator, introducer, notes) was a scholar and translator of Norwegian literature and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He translated five of Knut Hamsun’s works for Penguin Classics—Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894), Victoria (1898), and The Growth of the Soil (1917)—and was honored by the King of Norway with the St. Olav Medal and with the Knight’s Cross, First Class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (February 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141180641
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141180649
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 910L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.76 x 5.1 x 0.43 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #39,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Scandinavian Literature (Books)
- #1,477 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #3,407 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
325 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

325 global ratings

5 star		72%
4 star		15%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Steven E. Sanderson

Insatiable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 5, 2019

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A great psychological novel by an author new to me. Thank goodness for literature in translation. The author had an extremely difficult life as a young man, even by Norwegian emigre standards in the Midwest. The novel is set in an insignificant little town, in which the protagonist goes mad, inflating his worth as a writer even as the world has no use for his thoughts. The biggest issue is how to get a little food to sustain him and how to find a decent place to live. He generally fails at both, taking advantage of everyone he knows, while resenting their inattention to his greatness. Needless to say, his hunger is multidimensional. The book is reminiscent of Dostoevsky, but without the gore and murder. The protagonist has violence in him, but he directs it at his own destruction. Crazy people, it turns out, lack perspective.

12 people found this helpful

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mike levine

Very intimate reading experience

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 1, 2020

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Very engaging, absorbing,struggle to survive a life as artist. Highly entertaining, very accessible, direct, strong good writing and makes me want to read more

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Tara

Good story.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 13, 2021

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It is very interesting story.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2022

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Just arrived today and the cover was scuffed up.

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Michael

Sad but Expertly Written

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 20, 2020

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Don't expect to walk away from this novel jumping for joy. It's a wonderful depiction of how poverty can warp a man's mind. This book reminds me of something Albert Camus would write.

With it all, I loved reading it.

3 people found this helpful

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H

Not easily forgotten

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 26, 2014

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You know those people who always seem to be in crisis? Who nothing ever goes right for? Who seem to have plenty of luck and support, but to hear them tell it the world must be out to get them? This is a book that puts you in the mind of that person. The main character is on a journey toward starvation in Oslo; he's so poor that he eats wood and tries to sell the buttons off his vest, but so principled that he refuses charity and tries to give money to other poor people.

The ending is unexpected yet obvious, and wholly unforgettable. A perfect book.

4 people found this helpful

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Jonathan Varjabedian

Interesting, yet dull at times

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2021

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This was an interesting book, but kind of all over the place. I found myself skipping over some parts due to their repetitiveness.

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H. Rae Monk

Exhausting and Illuminating

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2016

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Hamsun's main character is so well-rounded that he continually changes the mind about how to perceive his situation. He will, sometimes in a single paragraph, make you feel heart-break, exasperation, disgust and pity. The four part narrative is both exhausting and illuminating with a never ending interiority that delves into the mind of a man perpetually on the brink of starvation. The psychological, emotional and physical toll that the main character endures is given raw and served on a tarnished silver platter. Absolutely brilliant.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Bela Lugosi's Still Dead

Uncomfortable yet addictive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 26, 2014

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"Hunger" is a novel where almost none of the characters have names. The first person narrator, veering wildly and sometimes uncontrollably between present and past tense, lucidity and hallucination, is slightly distanced from themselves by the initial implication that they are recollecting some past time; the only names we hear him speak are swiftly revealed as lies; the only other characters of any lasting significance are "The landlady" and "Ylajali", a fictitious and made-up name that the narrator has given a female acquaintance (we never find out her real name). The film version of this, an excellent Danish offering from the 1960s, was unable to avoid providing Hamsun's protagonist with a name but is otherwise very faithful to the source text.

Despite that little actually happens in "Hunger" on the surface, Hamsun's rejection of the realist style and intense attention to the psychological state of his Hauptfigur ensures that the book continues at a rollicking pace, and it is difficult to put down, perhaps because the intensity of the experiences are too much to stay away from for long, and as the humiliation and suffering of the narrator continues (especially as much of it is of his own makings as his determination to be honourable and satisfy his conscience - which stands in direct contrast to some of his more delusional behaviour, such as when he flips out at an almost-blind old man in the park for believing the unnecessary lies the narrator is telling him)(there is also much pain and suffering to be had by other characters that the narrator objects (often rightfully) to - the uncomfortable scenes in the landlady's flat in particular spring to mind) and increases, so the reader feels drawn to his plight, even despite the pitiful character being far from an idealised, suffering hero... he is a deeply flawed and, despite his strict conscience and masochistic generosity, also occasionally terrible person.

Is "Hunger" a classic? I would venture to say that it is. It shows the direction of much to come. It deserves to be better known than it is. It is definitely a flawed novel, and both the beginning and end are rather arbitrary in terms of timeframe; the subject being the protagonist's hard times, we could regard it as in medias res, and the end does not really conclude any of the story arcs; few characters stay long enough to develop and (though this is probably Hamsun's intention) none of them are particularly likable; however it is very powerful, intense and a long way ahead of its time.

Overall, this is a novel that forces you to read on with the same sense of dread and morbid curiosity that often causes us to slow down when we pass the result of a car accident... it's horrifying and yet we simply cannot look away.

10 people found this helpful

Keirsten Clark

Intense and Emotional. A read that will stay with you for a long time.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 27, 2015

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This book has stayed with me for many years with snippets coming back to me at many moments throughout my life. It was intense, emotional, incredibly uncomfortable and written in such a way that you are in no doubt as to the rawness of it all. I would definitely recommend this book, but make sure you are in the zone for something that will move you right out of your comfort zone.

5 people found this helpful

MelPryor

the translation was terrific and I couldn't put the book down from start ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 22, 2016

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This book blew me away, the translation was terrific and I couldn't put the book down from start to finish. Maybe that has something to do with the prose, or with the fact that I believed 110% in the character. A sort of stream of consciousness style ahead of its time. I can't believe this book was written in the 19th century.

7 people found this helpful

Mr. D. Norton

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 30, 2012

Verified Purchase

Hamsun's masterwork, which inspired generations of up and coming authors, and in his own words was the reason Charles Bukowski took up writing, still resonates in the modern day. The version I recieved arrived on time and in pristine condition. I would strongly recommend both the author who is undoubtably one of the 20th century's most gifted writers and the seller.

One person found this helpful

Henrietta

Perfect condition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Arrived in Perfect condition thank you, slightly late but it didn’t matter to me

One person found this helpful

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