Mysteries

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

Overview

Mysteries (1892) is the story of Johan Nilsen Nagel, a mysterious stranger who suddenly turns up in a small Norwegian town one summer-and just as suddenly disappears. Nagel is a complete outsider, a sort of modern Christ treated in a spirit of near parody. He condemns the politics and thought of the age, brings comfort to the insulted and injured and gains the love of two women suggestive of the biblical Mary and Martha. But there is a sinister side of him: in his vest he carries a vial of Prussic acid. The novel creates a powerful sense of Nagel's stream of thought, as he increasingly withdraws into the torture chamber of his own subconscious psyche.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141186184
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/28/2001
Series:	Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics Series
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	236,112
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun (1858–1952) worked as a laborer in both Scandinavia and America before establishing himself as a successful playwright and novelist.

Sverre Lyngstad, the preeminent scholar of Norwegian literature, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Sverre Lyngstad, the preeminent scholar of Norwegian literature, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments		ix
Introduction		xi
Suggestions for Further Reading		xxxiii
Translator's Note		xxxv
Mysteries		1	(282)
Explanatory Notes		283	(8)
Textual Notes		291

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher