Mysteries: Amazon.ca: Knut Hamsun, G. Bothmer: Books

Product Description

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The main character, like the title says, is a mysterious guy. Nagel arrives in a Norwegian town with plenty of money and goodwill, and though kind of an eccentric, seems to start to fit in with the local crowd. But it's almost as if Nagel only just landed on Earth, and while he wishes to live correctly, has no idea how to do it. Published at the end of the last century, Mysteries is an existentialist novel, very strange, often very funny, often sad and largely asking the question, "Why live?" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Mysteries is as immediate and haunting as last night's dreams (or nightmares)." --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

"Hamsun, perhaps more than any other writer, prefigured the techniques and attitudes of modernism." --Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Blind angels, Dec 5 2001

By

Paul Miller "___[_]D___" (Memphis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

I think Lyngstad is right on in translating midget into miniman because the midget is a double of Nagel and this translation reflects the intended meaning of Hamsun. Lyngstad's pacing is a little slower than the older translation perhaps because he is trying to be so very literal his english word count perhaps mounts a little to high. This is a small caveat however. I would rather see more of what Hamsun intended than read a free interpretation which the last translation was close to being. Lyngstad lambasts the other translations a little too much for my taste. If he didn't have his own translation to hawk his criticism would be more convincing. Like Hunger, Hamsun's first novel, Mysteries is great stuff, read it and experience a thousand miniature blind angels showering down on you.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Never quite matched his first novel, Oct 18 2001

By

P. Thompson "philthinx" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Undeniably a book of mystery. The reader always gets a dual sense of distance with Hamsun. There is the proximity - at times alarming - between the narrator and the synaptic impulses of the main character's brain. Yet there is also this persistent sense of not being let into a secret, the key to the disturbing, possibly insane nature of the hero (if you can call the prominent figure in Mysteries that). What Hamsun, and I'm guessing now, was trying to let the world in on was a kind of proto-existential angst - Kafka before Kafka if you like. The hero lives in a constant tornado of emotional highs and lows at times appearing in control, at times not. And this is the unsatisfying, fascinating heart of Mysteries. I urge you to read it, but only after reading Hunger, which set high standards
not only for Hamsun but for modernist writers for decades to come.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest to come out of Scandinavia, May 27 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mysteries (Paperback)

A long time Hamsun devotee, I regard Mysteries as his prime work. Mysteries is not one of his most commonly known titels, and God knows why.

In my opinion "Mysteries" outranks all other Scandinavian fiction. Ibsen's "A Doll's House" will be long forgotten before this book is buried. If it ever will be...

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious
Eight years later, I can still vividly recall the contradicting emotions that were brought on my as I read Mysteries for the first time. Read more

Published on Aug 9 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars Knut Rocks(six stars)
Knut is unmatched in relating the realm of a mans spirit and searing it to the page not with black and white ink but with ethereal prose that in truth is like liquid gold hammered... Read more

Published on Aug 4 1998