Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
New York: Avon Books, 1975
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: In this dreamlike parable from Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, a disenchanted military man and the daughter of a small-town merchant cross paths one day and instantly fall prey to a heated mutual attraction. But can the passionate romance survive their drastically different backgrounds and beliefs?.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Ganeshaka
I wonder how people summed up the experience of "first love" before roller coasters were invented? Holding that analogy for a moment.... I've come across three novels over the years that attempt to take the reader along for the dizzying ride. Turgenev's "First Love", Spencer's "Endless Love", and
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Hamsun's "Pan." I think teenagers should read all three as a sort of shotgun flu vaccine. Maybe one of these tales will help shorten the time inevitably spent in romantic sick bay. Pan is a swift read, two hours at most, nicely set against the seasons of a Northern sky and Norwegian wood. Think of it as a Goethe/Thoreau mix... "The Sorrows of Young Walden". It would make a pretty film, maybe in the cinematic style of "The Atonement". In thinking of it as a film, the epilogue "Glahn's Death" seems less superfluous because we are accustomed by now to stories that are completed and tailored to satisfy focus groups. I feel though, that the novella is better without the epilogue. For in real life, most victims of first love, like victims of the flu, survive. Hahaahhh..choo! Show Less
LibraryThing member williamcostiganjr
What a good book--and it's short enough to read in one sitting.
The way Knut Hamsun is able to draw right from the unconscious in his blend of his character's dreams, fantasies and realities is uncanny. Not only is his prose excellent, he clearly understands human psychology.
If you're interested in
The way Knut Hamsun is able to draw right from the unconscious in his blend of his character's dreams, fantasies and realities is uncanny. Not only is his prose excellent, he clearly understands human psychology.
If you're interested in
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him, I would start with Hunger and then try this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Pan is an 1894 novel set in Nordland (the north of Norway). Its first-person protagonist Thomas Glahn seems to be a Romantic embracing a rustic natural life as a hunter, but he has a vague military background as a lieutenant, and his place in the forest seems perhaps most determined by his
Erotic jealousy is a keynote of the story with its multiple love-triangles, and there is no assurance that Glahn is being honest with himself or with the reader. The epilogue "Glahn's Death" is written about Glahn in the third person, but anonymously, and its preoccupations are suspiciously similar to those in the body text, although the colonial Indian setting of the epilogue furnishes an altogether more caustic and "modern" tone.
The book is short, even with the translator's introduction, which is divided between biographical information on author Knut Hamsun and interpretive concerns regarding Pan which would probably be better appreciated after reading the novel. This 1998 Penguin edition, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, also includes some explanatory notes and editorial annotations tracing the reconciliation of the Norwegian first edition and later issuance in Hamsun's Collected Works.
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alienation from cultured society. His rhapsodies over details of the forest are perhaps a little insincere, a cover-story for the amorous pain that he experiences with the reminiscences offered in this memoir-styled tale. Erotic jealousy is a keynote of the story with its multiple love-triangles, and there is no assurance that Glahn is being honest with himself or with the reader. The epilogue "Glahn's Death" is written about Glahn in the third person, but anonymously, and its preoccupations are suspiciously similar to those in the body text, although the colonial Indian setting of the epilogue furnishes an altogether more caustic and "modern" tone.
The book is short, even with the translator's introduction, which is divided between biographical information on author Knut Hamsun and interpretive concerns regarding Pan which would probably be better appreciated after reading the novel. This 1998 Penguin edition, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, also includes some explanatory notes and editorial annotations tracing the reconciliation of the Norwegian first edition and later issuance in Hamsun's Collected Works.
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LibraryThing member William345
As if you needed to revisit it, friends, yet here it is: Hamsun's excruciatingly true-to-life depiction of the exaltation and despair of young love. In his later years, the novelist Anthony Burgess had a pat blurb for certain novels he liked. Of them he would say: "Almost unbearably moving!" That
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blurb applies perfectly to Pan. This novella is so emotionally affecting! It is so on the money! The reader goes through the entire exhausting emotional cycle here. From initial lusting, to growing interest, to first titallations of physical contact, to record-breaking Olympic coitus, to a sense of routine and boredom, to the first bickerings of leave taking, to heartbreak, heartbreak, heartbreak and yearning that only makes one's suffering worse. The novella is mercifully short--120 pages. I simply can't imagine 300 pages of this. It's brilliance lies in how it neatly crystallizes the entire range of emotions experienced in erotic love affairs. The magnificent heights of lovemaking, the impossible megalomania of it all, to the lowest lows. That it's set in northern Norway and narrated by a man who lives in a bucolic setting with his hunting dog, all that's interesting too. The man, Lt. Glahn, records his trips into the woods to hunt. There's beautiful description of the Norwegian countryside that reminded me of Per Petterson and Hallidór Laxness, though the latter was an Icelander. Glahn's love object is a silly fickle girl-child called Edvarda. My God, the hatred! The vindictiveness they mete out to each other! Finally, the book is about how such "love" changes us forever. It's a life event for which there is no closure. We become, all of us, the walking wounded. Quite a story. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member BayardUS
Hamsun is an interesting writer: I adore Hunger, and I thought Growth of the Soil was a solid work well deserving of the accolades it received, but Victoria, on the other hand, was completely forgettable. One thing these books prove is that Hamsun has range as an author, and isn't one of those
This proven ability is what makes Pan such a confusing work to me, since the two narrative voices in the book are supposed to be distinct but read almost identically. They're so close that it makes you wonder if (warning: spoiler) Glahn wasn't faking his own death with the letter that comprises the last 20 pages of Pan. It's in general hard to get a handle on this short work, as the text quickly makes clear that Glahn isn't mentally stable, and therefore is likely far from a reliable narrator. He sees things, including the god Pan in the forest, he finds himself stranded in fog and ends up in the exact opposite place he intended, sometimes he feels things that aren't there, he flies into a rage for little reason, and he seems to oscillate between some level of social competence (even claiming great insight into the human mind) and total inability to understand what's going on in social situations. The Doctor is worried about him, and for good reason. This makes it continually unclear what amount of Glahn's experiences are rooted in reality and what are figments of his mind or reimagined instances of the real thing, all we know for certain comes from the closing letter of the book, which makes clear that at least a good chunk of what Glahn has told us is a lie.
This isn't the best use of an unreliable narrator I've ever seen (that's Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun), but it is used to illustrate some interesting things. For instance, Pan makes clear that love doesn't cure all, as the love (infatuation) of Glahn seems to accelerate the loss of his mental stability. The blindness caused by his infatuation turns him into a veritable monster at some points, driving him to become a murderer, not only of an innocent person but his loyal dog as well. Pan is a short book, but in a small number of pages Hamsun manages to have Glahn circle the drain a whole bunch of times.
Unfortunately I'd say Pan is one of the lesser Hamsun books I've read, better than Victoria but less than Growth of the Soil and Hunger.
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writers that can only capture a single type of character.This proven ability is what makes Pan such a confusing work to me, since the two narrative voices in the book are supposed to be distinct but read almost identically. They're so close that it makes you wonder if (warning: spoiler) Glahn wasn't faking his own death with the letter that comprises the last 20 pages of Pan. It's in general hard to get a handle on this short work, as the text quickly makes clear that Glahn isn't mentally stable, and therefore is likely far from a reliable narrator. He sees things, including the god Pan in the forest, he finds himself stranded in fog and ends up in the exact opposite place he intended, sometimes he feels things that aren't there, he flies into a rage for little reason, and he seems to oscillate between some level of social competence (even claiming great insight into the human mind) and total inability to understand what's going on in social situations. The Doctor is worried about him, and for good reason. This makes it continually unclear what amount of Glahn's experiences are rooted in reality and what are figments of his mind or reimagined instances of the real thing, all we know for certain comes from the closing letter of the book, which makes clear that at least a good chunk of what Glahn has told us is a lie.
This isn't the best use of an unreliable narrator I've ever seen (that's Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun), but it is used to illustrate some interesting things. For instance, Pan makes clear that love doesn't cure all, as the love (infatuation) of Glahn seems to accelerate the loss of his mental stability. The blindness caused by his infatuation turns him into a veritable monster at some points, driving him to become a murderer, not only of an innocent person but his loyal dog as well. Pan is a short book, but in a small number of pages Hamsun manages to have Glahn circle the drain a whole bunch of times.
Unfortunately I'd say Pan is one of the lesser Hamsun books I've read, better than Victoria but less than Growth of the Soil and Hunger.
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LibraryThing member michiy
This was my introduction to Knut Hamsun and he writes beautifully! His voice is distinct penetrates the reading. Definitely one of the top writers out there. Looking forward to reading his other books.
LibraryThing member vaellus
The very promising first few chapters readied me to love this, but sadly the novel stagnates a little bit with its catalog of the protagonist's absurdities. Clearly there is the influence of Dostoyevsky hovering about Hamsun's works at this stage of his scribbling life, but Dostoyevsky didn't get
Alternative tags for the Dostoyevskial-minded: ear, whisper, Stavrogin.
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stuck in one groove with his characters like Hamsun. Pan essentials: a nutter of a protagonist, plenty of nature imagery, dream sequences, and erotic encounters bewitchingly depicted. Sounds good, but the protagonist's obsessions get old very quickly, and that is the problem. A short book, yet it's repetitive. Summary: Hunger part 2, an Edvard Munch exhibition comes alive. Alternative tags for the Dostoyevskial-minded: ear, whisper, Stavrogin.
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LibraryThing member Endreel
Deliciously romantic and ecstatic, earnest and mysterious - very gleeful, yet inhabited by fluctuating notions of enormous melancholia. As a whole, I don't know if I like it as much as the two others I've read by Hamsun (Sult and Mysterier), but it contain passages of uniquely sincere, frantic and
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passionate outbreaks impossible to resist. Show Less
LibraryThing member JimmyChanga
I wish I had read it a little quicker. I put this down about half way in, some other reading got in the way, and so it took a while to read and the momentum was kinda lost. Nevertheless... a great book, he has a way of creating the strangest voices that are not simple parodies, but are very funny
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and effective at the same time. There is a lot going on in here beyond the voice, much more going on here than in Hunger actually (though it might take more patience than that book, as there are many passages of very little action). The infatuation and the mind's going back and forth is a similar element, but here it is more muted, and I think more complex. The juxtaposition of the last section, where a different speaker talks about the first speaker is a nice touch as well. This book makes me think, a lot. I don't really know if I can talk about it intelligently, yet. The main characters go through many subtle and violent changes, almost completely out of their own control or understanding (and mine); I pity them. Show Less
LibraryThing member questbird
A man who feels at home in the woods is undone by the love of a local woman. Love of nature shines through in the translation.
LibraryThing member proustitute
Magical, melancholic, perhaps Hamsun's finest.
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This tale examines the psychology of people through the meeting of a lone hunter and an enigmatic girl. Beautiful prose uses images of nature to illustrate the nature of human emotions.
Subjects
Language
Original language
Norwegian
Original publication date
1894
Physical description
160 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
0380004828 / 9780380004829