His ordeal, enhanced by his inability or unwillingness to pursue a professional career, which he deems unfit for someone of his abilities, is pictured in a series of encounters which Hamsun himself described as 'a series of analyses. Pursuing the career of a writer, he is painfully experiencing the discrepancy between the ideal and the material world. Even now, more than a hundred years later, we confront similar challenges and the novel remains relevant. He is a poor journalist making two ends meet. Hunger is a powerful tale of the currents of history sweeping individuals off their grounds of existence and tossing them into an ocean of despair. Hunger Knut Hamsun Hunger is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun published in 1890. While he vainly tries to maintain an outer shell of respectability, his mental and physical decay are recounted in detail. Written by Aleksei Marchyn The protagonist The main character of the story never reveals his name. First published in Norway in 1890, Hunger probes the depths of consciousness with frightening and gripping power. Set in late 19th century Kristiania, the novel recounts the adventures of a starving young man whose sense of reality is giving way to a delusionary existence on the darker side of a modern metropolis. Written after Hamsun's return from an ill-fated tour of America, Hunger is loosely based on the author's own impoverished life before his breakthrough in 1890.

It has been translated into English three times: in 1899 by Mary Chavelita Dunne (under the alias George Egerton), by Robert Bly in 1967, and by Sverre Lyngstad, whose translation is considered definitive. It hails the irrationality of the human mind in an intriguing and sometimes humorous novel. The novel is hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern, psychology-driven literature. Whilst never quite falling into the abyss of suicide, Hamsun's narrator is forever on the verge of losing it.

Parts of it had been published anonymously in the Danish magazine Ny Jord in 1888. Author: Knut Hamsun Translated from the Norwegian and with an afterword by Robert Bly Introduction by Paul Auster. Set in Oslo, this is a compelling trip into the mind of a young writer, driven by starvation to extremes of euphoria and despair. Hunger is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun and was published in its final form in 1890.

Hunger hamsun novel