Growth of the Soil.

HAMSUN, Knut.

Item Number: 116512

London: Gyldendal, 1920.

First edition in English (preceding the American edition by one year) of Hamsun’s classic work, which garnered him the Nobel Prize in literature. Octavo, original cloth. In very good condition. Translated from the Norwegian by William J.A. Worster.

H.G. Wells early praised it as "one of the very greatest novels I have ever read." On the novel's publication in the United States, critics observed: "there is good reason why this Norwegian writer should come to stand in the front rank of foreign authors… He is read for the sheer pleasure of reading." At the outbreak of WWII, however, Hamsun's reputation was badly tarnished when he "welcomed the brutal German occupation of Norway during WWII and gave his Nobel Prize in Literature as a gift to the Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels" (New York Times). Whether Hamsun, then in his 80s, was "basically a non-political person" or a knowing collaborator, his powerful impact on modern literature is virtually uncontested (Lyngstad, Knut Hamsun, 1-2, xii). "It was only after the award of the Nobel Prize in 1920 that Hamsun was really introduced in English" (France, ed., Oxford Guide, 572). The Growth of the Soil is the novel by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Stylistically it has a simplicity which reflects its subject matter and there prevails what Worster calls a "Miltonic monumental calm". Hamsun also has the qualities of a Norwegian Steinbeck in his tale of the tragedies and joys of everyday life. There are also 'Bergmanesque' elements in its blacker episodes: the two infanticides; Axel left to die in the snow by the jealous and resentful Brede, whom he has gone out of his way to help and support; and the actions and words of the poisonous, spiteful and grasping Oline. Yet these are relieved by an underlying humour and lightness and all characters seem to have their redeeming features. Tragedy and evil rarely lead to unmitigated disaster, often because of the inner strength and fortitude of the principal characters.